The USDA has announced a new initiative to study how to use psychology to make children choose to eat healthier, rather than have it forced on them. When almost 1/3 of children are overweight, it is apparent that federal programs to make healthier lunches and fight obesity have not worked. The agency is hoping that behavioral scientist will be able to figure out better ways to “trick” children into choosing healthy over making it the only option.
$2 million will be dedicated to the research, half of which $1 million will go to establish 14 nutrition centers around the countr0y. The other half will go to Cornell University to create a new child nutrition center. Cornell has long been a leader in this type of research and the center will be the best of its kind in the country. Their focus will be developing “smart lunchrooms” that guide kids to make good choices even when more tempting ones are around.
“We’re not taking things away from kids, it’s making the better choice the easier, more convenient choice,” says Cornell scientist Brian Wansink.
Some tricks that the center has found successful in the home:
- Put fruit in baskets rather than stainless steel bins
- Make them “pay” for desserts. Ex: extra chore
- Hide chocolate milk behind plain milk
- Easy to grab and go items. “Snack packs”
Here are a couple tricks they’ve already judged to be successful in schools. If your child’s school has a nutrition issue they may want to try:
- Keep ice cream in freezers without glass display tops so the treats are out of sight.
- Move salad bars next to the checkout registers, where students linger to pay, giving them more time to ponder a salad.
- Start a quick line for make-your-own subs and wraps
- Change names of some items. Ex: “X-Ray vision carrots”, “lean, mean, green beans”
- Have cafeteria workers get more involved. Ex: “Would you rather have green beans or carrots?”
