Challenging the
status quo
Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Science Daily
Researchers are challenging conventional beliefs about the effectiveness of traditional strategies for encouraging healthy eating.
The symposium, "Challenging Misconceptions About the Psychology of Food Choice," includes four presentations that tackle issues such as the harmfulness of weight-stigma, encouraging healthy choices, and strategies to help children and teens.
The symposium is featured at the SPSP 16th Annual Convention in Long Beach, California.
Helping kids eat more vegetables
A study, published in the Journal
of the American Medical Association, observed whether or not photographs
of vegetables on a school lunch tray had an impact on the amount of vegetables
eaten. The study found that placing photos of carrots and green beans did
increase the amounts of vegetables eaten during lunch, but it still was not at
levels consistent with government-recommended dietary guidelines.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota are now studying other simple methods that schools could utilize to encourage eating vegetables during lunch. Their research will be published in the coming year.
"[Our] research suggests that little changes to the
lunchroom setting can help kids eat more vegetables. For example, you can help
kids eat more vegetables by providing vegetables before you offer any other
food," explains researcher Traci Mann. Children who were given vegetables
to eat first before any other food ate more than children who were provided all
food options at once.
Challenging teens' attitudes
Researchers at the University of California at San Diego and the
University of Texas at Austin are investigating ways to motivate teenagers to
make healthier food and drink choices.
"Teenagers are notoriously uninterested in healthy
eating," says lead researcher Christopher Bryan. In response to that
disinterest, Bryan and his colleagues have taken a novel approach at motivating
teens. "Instead of trying to convince teens to care about something they
don't care about, we link healthy eating to things they already care
about," Bryan explains.
The researchers are framing the intervention as an expose of
deceptive food marketing practices designed to manipulate teens to eat junk
food, for instance, explaining how companies engineer junk food to be as
addictive as possible and use dishonest labeling to make products appear
healthier than they are.
"We find that by changing the way teens think about healthy eating, we're able to increase the extent to which teens want to see themselves as healthy eaters...and by doing that, we're able to increase the rate at which teens make healthy choices," says Bryan.
"We find that by changing the way teens think about healthy eating, we're able to increase the extent to which teens want to see themselves as healthy eaters...and by doing that, we're able to increase the rate at which teens make healthy choices," says Bryan.
The researchers are continuing to study whether their approach
can effectively change teens' behavior long-term.
Downsides of calorie counting
Counting calories may negatively impact an individual's ability
to focus, according to researchers at the University of California at San
Diego, Harvard University, and Princeton University.
"If you're counting calories, seemingly innocuous reminders
of tempting, high-calorie food--such as an empty donut box in the middle of a
conference table--can lead to worse performance on difficult tests of attention
and reasoning ability," says lead researcher Aimee Chabot.
Many employers often provide indulgent food in meetings with the
intention of motivating their staff, but that may be having an unintended
negative effect. The researchers suggest that individuals looking to reduce
their calorie intake avoid counting calories and instead opt for simpler
strategies, such as avoiding added sugars or not eating after 7 p.m.
The research is still preliminary, and more data is being
collected to replicate the initial results and examine the effect of the
presence of actual tempting food on cognitive performance.
Effects of weight shaming
Weight-loss campaigns and programs often portray overweight and
obese individuals negatively. Researchers at the University of California at
Santa Barbara have found that media messages that stigmatize obesity had
negative behavioral and impacts on overweight participants. The research was
published in the Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology.
"Our research shows that weight stigma leads to behavioral
responses that can ironically contribute to weight gain," says co-author
Jeffrey Hunger. The researchers observed that self-perceived overweight women
who read a weight-stigmatizing news article consumed more high-calorie snack
foods compared to overweight women who read a neutral article.
"Simply reading about the potential for weight stigma was
enough to impair self-regulation among overweight women," explains Hunger.
The research suggests that the mere threat of stigma can have important
behavioral effects, even in cases where an individual does not directly
experience weight-based mistreatment.
Story
Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Note: Materials may be edited for
content and length.
Journal
Reference:
Marla Reicks, Joseph P. Redden, Traci Mann, Elton Mykerezi, Zata
Vickers.Photographs in Lunch Tray Compartments and Vegetable
Consumption Among Children in Elementary School Cafeterias. JAMA, 2012; 307 (8) DOI:10.1001/jama.2012.170
Cite
This Page:
Society for Personality and Social Psychology. "Psychology
of food choice: Challenging the status quo." Science Daily,
28 February 2015.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150228174547.htm>.
