It’s All in the Name
Everyone knows how difficult it can be to get a child to eat his or her vegetables. And when those kids grow up to be adults, it still may be even more challenging to get them to eat their veggies.
Well, according to researchers at Stanford University, it’s all about the name.
Bradley P. Turnwald and coauthors at Stanford, tested whether using indulgent descriptive words and phrases typically used to describe less healthy foods would actually increase vegetable consumption because some perceive healthier foods as less tasty.
And it turns out, it actually does!
The study was conducted last fall in a large university cafeteria where data was collected each weekday. Every day, one vegetable was labeled in one of four ways: basic (e.g., beets, green beans or carrots); healthy restrictive (e.g., “lighter-choice beets with no added sugar,” “light n’ low-carb green beans and shallots” or “carrots with sugar-free citrus dressing”); healthy positive (e.g., “high-antioxidant beets,” “healthy energy-boosting green beans and shallots” or “smart-choice vitamin C citrus carrots”); or indulgent (e.g., “dynamite chili and tangy lime-seasoned beets,” “sweet sizzilin’ green beans and crispy shallots” or “twisted citrus-glazed carrots”).
Although the names changed, there were no changes in how the vegetables were prepared or served.
Turnwald and his team found that indulgent labeling of vegetables resulted in 25 percent more people selecting the vegetable compared with basic labeling, 41 percent more people than the healthy restrictive labeling and 35 percent more people than the healthy positive labeling.
Indulgent labeling also resulted in a 23 percent increase in the mass of vegetables consumed compared with basic labeling and a 33 percent increase in the mass of vegetables consumed compared with the healthy restrictive labeling.
I wonder if the plant breeding companies used these types of indulgent names of their new varieties, if it would have any impact on those hard-to-reach millennial shoppers? It might be food for thought …
Turnwald’s research was published by JAMA Internal Medicine. Click here to read the full article.
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