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Investigating the relationship between perceived meal colour variety and food intake across meal types in a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment
Dietary intake of fruits and vegetables is widely known to be beneficial to health, however, many of us fail to meet the daily dietary requirements. Current research postulates that a colorful meal is synonymous to a healthy, tasty choice. In this study by König et al. (2021), the authors investigate how the relationship between ‘colorful’ and ‘healthy’ attributes to food across several meals in a sample of 110 participants who submitted 2818 meal data points (pictures of breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, and snacks) using a smartphone-based Ecological Momentary Assessment for the duration of eight days. Food pictures were divided into seven groups based on their description and color variability. Analysis of the results revealed that, with the exception of afternoon tea meals, all meals did not have vegetables as a part of them, and that the perception of ‘colorful’ food depended substantially on the presence of vegetables. Furthermore, a negative relationship was found between food color and consuming sweets during breakfast, dinner, and snacks. The authors conclude that in their study the relationship between ‘colorful’ and ‘healthy’ food was found ubiquitously across all meal varieties, and can be recognized as an avenue for interventions promoting healthy dietary practices. [NPID: Eating behaviour; food colours; vegetables; snacks; ecological momentary assessment]
Year: 2021
