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Boosting healthy food choices by meal colour variety: Results from two experiments and a just-in-time Ecological Momentary Intervention
König & Renner (2019) conducted three studies with intervention strategies for boosting healthy food choice by prompting consumers to eat a colourful lunch at the appropriate moment. Effectivity and feasibility of this intervention strategy were tested in two laboratory experiments and one real-life, smartphone-based Ecological Momentary Intervention. The first study with 83 participants involved 4 meals (colourful, typical, healthy and low-calorie), the second with 42 subjects and tested 3 meals (colourful, typical and varied) from a Fake Food Buffet, and in study 3, 80 participants recorded images of 1,210 lunch meals over a period of 3 weeks using mobile visual food recording. All participants were asked to rate the prompts’ feasibility and in the second week, received a daily smartphone prompt to eat a colourful lunch. Results showed that prompting the sample to eat colourful foods increased the proportion of healthy foods consumed compared to typical meals in all three studies, with the individuals taking part in the study reporting that the prompt was easy to follow and act upon. In studies 1 and 2, colourful meals contained more fruit and vegetables, while in study 3 the prompt increased vegetable consumption. The colourful meals were said to be the tastiest in study one. This study suggests it may be promising to prompt people to eat colourful meals to encourage healthy food choices in daily life. [NPID: perception, fruit and vegetable intake, food color]
Year: 2019
