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 For the study, a team of researchers at Stanford University in
California experimented with randomly naming identical vegetable
dishes in one of four ways: a basic description with plain names, a
label stressing a lack of unhealthy components like sugar or fat, a
tag identifying positive health properties like lots of vitamins or
antioxidants or an indulgent moniker designed to make the dish sound
delicious and intriguing like “dynamite chili and tangy lime
seasoned beets.”
During weekday lunches in a university cafeteria, researchers
watched how many people chose the dishes depending on how the dishes
were described and then weighed how much food people put on their
plates. Compared with basic labels, indulgent descriptions got 25
percent more people to select the vegetable dishes and also resulted
in a 23 percent gain in the total weight of vegetables piled onto
plates.
“Our results suggest that emphasizing health in descriptions of
healthy foods may not be an effective approach for motivating most
diners to choose healthy options, and that a better approach may be
to emphasize the indulgent, tasty components of the food,” said lead
study author Bradley Turnwald, a psychology researcher at Stanford.
“This means that we may be able to help fight the obesity epidemic
and the problematic mindset that healthy foods are not tasty by
changing the way that we label and talk about healthy foods,”
Turnwald said by email.
Researchers did their experiment at a cafeteria that serves an
average of 607 lunches on a typical weekday and ran their experiment
over a total 46 days.
During the study period, 8,279 diners, or about 30 percent, selected
the vegetable dish. The rest skipped the veggies no matter what they
were called.
While the indulgent labels like “slow-roasted caramelized zucchini
bites” lured the most diners, basic descriptions that only named the
vegetables like zucchini were the second most popular option
followed by labels touting positive health benefits, researchers
report in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The least appealing choice for diners were dishes with healthy
labels describing negative attributes that were missing, like
cholesterol or sugar or fat.
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One limitation of the study is that researchers didn’t examine how
much of the food on their plates people actually ate.
And it’s unclear if people would be drawn to dishes by their labels
a second time, noted Dr. Margo Denke, a former researcher at the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
“For instance, poorly cooked zucchini bites might be pushed onto the
poor consumer once with fun language, but if they taste bad - are
undercooked and not flavorful or overcooked and slimy - the consumer
will steer clear of this choice on the next go ‘round,” Denke, who
wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.
For many consumers, there’s a perception that healthy food is boring
and plain, and exciting labels might get some people to try things
they might not otherwise eat, said Vandana Sheth, a private practice
dietician and nutritionist in Los Angeles and a spokesperson for the
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
“Using descriptive words to highlight the flavor profile as well as
positive health benefits can encourage people to enjoy more healthy
food options,” Sheth, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by
email. “Parents, caregivers, and consumers can certainly use this
concept to encourage families to enjoy eating healthfully.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2tdSN2u JAMA Internal Medicine, online June
12, 2017.
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