Field Notes

Veggie Presentation Can Improve Their Consumption

Researchers at the University of Georgia (UGA) have examined the psychology of how vegetables are presented and served, and how this affects consumption.

Previous research shows that people consume less of a particular food if it’s packaged separately in a smaller portion. For example, serving separately wrapped chocolates generally reduces consumption by making the eater more aware of the amount.

“For chocolates, people need to inhibit the desire to eat more. Each decision point offers a reminder that they should stop, and so increasing the decision points actually decreases consumption,” says Michelle vanDellen, PhD, an associate professor in the department of psychology at UGA and lead author on the paper.

However, researchers posited that offering relatively less appealing foods, such as vegetables and other low-fat, low-sugar foods, in separate units might have the opposite effect and increase consumption.

“People need to initiate self-control to consume vegetables. More decision points might require more initiation. Separating food into a unit might reduce decision points. Because people also have an intrinsic desire for completion, they may be more likely to finish a unit or serving, even if these are made of relatively unappealing options,” vanDellen says.

The researchers conducted experiments in which they randomly presented cauliflower both in whole presentation formats (all pieces on one plate) or a partitioned presentation format and measured consumption. Overall, people didn’t eat different total amounts of cauliflower across the conditions. But they did find that the presentation format affected consumption.

In the whole presentation format, most participants ate only one piece of cauliflower. In the partitioned format, participants were less likely to stop at one piece and more likely to eat a whole serving (either four or six pieces, depending on the study).

Coauthors on the study include Janani Rajbhandari-Thapa, PhD, an assistant professor of health policy and management in the UGA College of Public Health, and Julio Sevilla, PhD, an associate professor in the UGA Terry College of Business department of marketing.

“While past findings have shown that partitions can help curve the consumption of highly tempting, unhealthful foods, as a result of enhanced self-monitoring, our work provides support for another benefit of using partitions,” Sevilla says. “Interestingly, partitions can help increase the consumption of healthful items, such as vegetables, as they nudge consumers to finish what they started.”

“This study is a true outcome of interdisciplinary collaboration,” Rajbhandari-Thapa says. “The findings inform how a subtle change in vegetable presentation can influence consumption behavior. The result can inform nudging and choice architecture intervention in cafeteria settings to encourage vegetable consumption.”

— Source: University of Georgia

 

Study Measures Impact of Food Insecurity on Kids’ Health

Food insecurity is a persistent social problem in the United States that affected roughly 14.3 million households in 2018 and nearly 14% of households with children, according to the USDA. A new study by researchers at the Boston University School of Social Work and American University’s School of Public Affairs confirms the negative impact of food insecurity on child health, suggesting the urgent need for policies to combat this problem.

“Previous studies have pointed to a negative impact of food insecurity on child health, but our paper uses rich, nationally representative data to rule out other explanations for this relationship,” says study lead author Margaret M.C. Thomas, MSW, a doctoral candidate at Boston University School of Social Work. “By comparing the outcomes of children in food-secure homes to those in food-insecure homes who were alike with respect to a large number of other factors, we have been able to more definitively characterize the serious negative health impacts of food insecurity.”

Published in the journal Pediatrics, the research by Thomas and colleagues Daniel P. Miller, PhD, an associate professor at Boston University, and Taryn W. Morrissey, PhD, an associate professor at American University, points to a unique and negative effect of household food insecurity on children’s health that isn’t due to the composition of their homes, the safety of their neighborhoods, or their household’s income or receipt of public assistance. Instead, it shows the pervasive negative impacts of household food insecurity on children’s health. “Household food insecurity was related to significantly worse general health, some acute and chronic health problems, worse health care access, and heightened emergency department use for children,” Morrissey says.

The team of researchers used propensity scoring methods to investigate the effects of food insecurity on children’s health, which involved leveraging a measure of household food insecurity that was included in the nationally representative National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). The NHIS data also include a rich set of background information about families including demographic characteristics, economic information, public program participation, and adult physical and mental health outcomes.

Thomas and her colleagues believe that their analytic approach is an important improvement over previous studies that use traditional regression methods. Using propensity scoring methods allowed them to better assess the causal impact of food insecurity on key domains of child health and health care use.

“Propensity scoring, a quasi-experimental family of methods, seeks to mimic the context of an experimental design by comparing outcomes among children who differ with respect to the household’s food insecurity but who are alike in all other observable ways,” Thomas says. “Because of the highly detailed information in the NHIS data, we were able to create a sample that is balanced with respect to known predictors of food insecurity.”

Data on the independent impact of food insecurity on child health help guide efforts to prevent food insecurity and ameliorate its consequences. The researchers suggest immediate policy responses, such as an increase in federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits for families.

“There are clear and consistent harmful impacts of food insecurity on children’s general health, chronic health, acute health, and access to health care,” Thomas says. “Without intervention, household food insecurity will continue to detrimentally impact children’s health.”

— Source: American University