Here is an interesting article from the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine that shows some concrete information on children’s food choices and packaging based on the “nudge” concept that was introduced to us earlier in class. The study said something that most of us probably already suspect—kids are more likely to eat and like foods that have happy cartoon penguins on them. The drawback to the study is that while the presence or absence of said cartoon characters on sugary foods tends to be a strong indicator of whether children will be interested in eating them, the same does not seem to apply as strongly to healthy foods such as vegetables. This might be a tool in the hands of people interested in promoting the public health in relatively high income countries such as the United States. The US is dealing with the burden of non-communicable disease such as obesity and heart disease. Getting children to eat healthy foods by their own choice and not by any government mandate might be a huge step toward promoting healthy habits in the future generation. While increasing the number of cartoon characters on healthy foods might not seem too hard, the bigger problem will most likely be keeping those cartoon characters off of unhealthy foods. The eating habits of the future generation may have a massive effect on the future of our country—politically, financially and physically.
I thought this was a great article. It's almost funny when you see a study done and think "well of course! that just seems obvious!" But I think these studies can be useful tools to promote healthy lifestyle choices not only for food, but even things such as proper hygiene and exercise.
ReplyDeleteI always wonder how I became so obsessed with McDonalds. But looking back, how couldn't a kid love it? There are clowns are cartoon characters that want to be your friend, and then a free toy with every delicious meal! McDonalds is smart in that they create loyal consumers as early as a toddler.
I think that such strategies should be adopted to coerce children into things such as healthy eating and exercise. I think that one of the biggest challenges for public health in high-income countries is to learn from companies that shape people's decisions, and apply them to ways for living a healthy lifestyle.
I thought this article was really interesting and I think that it shows a major problem in the public health issue of promoting healthy life styles. That is, competition among companies trying to sell their products. Just when public health specialists find a way to promote healthy diet or exercise choices, companies that promote unhealthy living seem to out-do them. In the case of food choice, health specialists may find ways to promote eating fruits and veggies, but as soon as they do, McDonalds is coming out with the hot new toy to put in the happy meals.
ReplyDeletePublic health seems to be in constant battle with companies out to make more money, regardless of the consequences it may have on the health of their customers. Of course, there is no way to restrict them from marketing their products, its all part of the business, so instead,public health officials have to be creative in order to overpower them. I just found this thought interesting. Its funny that something as simple as a couple of penguins could cause so many issues.