What really nudges kids to eat right?
Seven tips from the latest meta-analysis of food behavior tests
My mother recently reminded my brothers and me about our numerous childhood strategies to avoid eating lima beans and other healthy foods.
First was the Carrot Camouflage Maneuver. Didn’t work.
Then there was the Op Art Deception. Caught green-handed.
The favorite was the Chipmunk Cheek Caper. One of my brothers perfected the skill of stuffing an inordinate number of beans in his mouth without swallowing, somehow articulating a request to go to the bathroom, and then spitting the beans into the toilet.
It actually worked a couple of times. But it wasn’t a replicable, long-term strategy.
Unfortunately, my mom went down Memory Lane while my daughter was taking mental notes nearby.
Not that she needed to. Like most kids, she’s developed all sorts of methods and excuses for avoiding food that’s good for her.
That’s why I was intrigued by a new report called “Which Healthy Eating Nudges Work Best?”
Written by Roman Cadario and Pierre Chandon, the analysis looked at the results of 97 field studies conducted around the world. The studies tested a wide range of “nudges” to encourage healthy eating.
By “nudge,” the authors mean something that changes the way people see their options, without eliminating any choice or significantly changing financial incentives. As Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, the popularizers of the concept, describe it: “To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates. Putting fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.”
So, putting aside force-feeding, hiding the candy in the closet, boring propaganda, and blatant bribery, what tips does the study offer to parents concerned about their children’s eating habits?
Here are seven observations:
1. It’s easier to reduce the bad than to increase the good. As the authors put it, “it is easier to make people eat less chocolate cake than to make them eat more vegetables…”
2. Low calorie diets don’t work. They add that it’s even harder to get people to “simply eat less.”
3. Size matters. By far, the most effective nudges were what the authors unironically called “size enhancements.” That includes things like changing “the size of the plate, bowl, or glass, or the size of pre-plated portions.” Such methods reduced the number of calories consumed by more than 215 kcals (calories) per day (about 12 percent of a typical adult’s 2,500-calorie diet). That’s the equivalent of more than 13 teaspoons of sugar.
That means you’re more likely to eat a few extra lima beans if they’re already on your plate than if you have to ask for more. Conversely, you’re less likely to have that extra bite of candy if you have to unwrap another package to get it.
4. Convenience counts. Little tricks make it easier to choose healthy foods — or more bothersome to pick bad ones. For example, it helps to make healthy foods the default option on a menu, to put them in a store’s “grab and go” section (instead of just candy and gum), or to pre-slice them. A cafeteria may put unhealthy foods at the end of a line (in the hope that the customer’s tray will already be full) or provide utensils that don’t work well with the bad stuff.
5. Hype works. I never bought my mom’s “eat it, it’s good for you” line. But that may say more about my attitude toward authority than the effectiveness of what the authors call “hedonic enhancements” and “healthy eating calls.” Apparently, calling something a “twisted citrus-glazed carrot,” piling up fruit pyramids at the supermarket, and having school lunch staff ask “which vegetable would you like to have for lunch?” reduces calorie intake by an average of 8 percent.
6. Good labels help a little. Better-designed fine print on nutrition labels or, better yet, so-called “evaluative labels” (ones that explicitly say the product is “good” or “bad” for you) reduce consumption by about 4 percent.
7. Timing counts. The authors found that it’s easier to change your behavior when you’re about to eat something than when you’re choosing what to buy. In other words, it’s harder to resist buying inexpensive and convenient bulk food you don’t really need than to say “no” to a second helping.
Some people may look at that list and say, “I didn’t need a bunch of scholars and 97 field tests to know that.”
But few of those tips are commonly used these days, especially here in the “Super Size Me” U.S. of A.
In large part, that’s because the folks who sell unhealthy and unneeded food have figured out how to counteract or co-opt those strategies. (Have you ever wondered why candy bars today aren’t the same size as you remember from your childhood?)
And they’ve been abetted — sometimes quite wittingly — by legislators and government regulators.
But the beauty of “nudges” — as opposed to policies with bigger financial implications, such as snack taxes or product bans — is that they’re more likely to be enacted and implemented.
They’re also less likely to suffer the recent indignity of the Berkeley, California soda tax. It was working perfectly fine, but the state legislature and governor overturned it (reluctantly) to stave off a beverage industry-sponsored initiative to drastically limit local governments’ ability to pass taxes on anything.
The wonk in me strongly believes that financial incentives and disincentives are usually the most efficient way to get things done. Research shows pretty conclusively the effectiveness of carbon taxes, rebates for installing solar panels, cigarette taxes, and the like.
But the political strategist in me recognizes how thoroughly such measures have been demonized in this country, regardless of their merits.
And the father and former child in me notices that giving or withholding allowances and bonuses for good grades and behavior goes only so far.
So, I’m planning to put more of my time and energy into nudging. And I’m hoping this nudges people working for social change to do more nudging of their own.
My daughter may eventually wise up to my little tricks. But if they work, her dismay will be, in my mother’s immortal words, “tough and too bad.” And as she grows older, she’ll realize, like I did, that those tricks were really treats.
