Fruit between snacks could prevent the Christmas excesses

In the journal "Psychological Science" a study describes that people are more likely to opt for a healthy food when it is offered together with unhealthy Snacks. As the reason, the researchers assume that we have access to the healthy food, because it unhealthy Alternatives more attention. A practice test over the holidays could be worth it.

In the Experiment, the participants should be for one of two baskets decide of which two unhealthy Treats, and the other is a healthy and an unhealthy food contained, for example, a combination of chocolate bars and biscuits in the first, or from chocolate bars and carrots in the second basket. They were told that they would receive a food from the selected bin, but they did not know what. Under these conditions, twice as many participants opted for the healthier basket.

Prof. Dr. Nicolette Sullivan concludes: "Our research suggests that the context of the food we buy in the supermarket, or select it from a menu, is very important. It is obvious, but Adding a healthy Option – for example, fruits together with chocolate – can cause them to stand out, and we decide rather in favour of it."

By Tracking the eye movements, the researchers found that the healthy Option, stood out among the unhealthy options. This attracted the attention of participants and led to the fact that they moved the healthy Option longer considered and finally selected. Conversely, it worked the same way: In the choice between a basket with two kinds of healthy foods and another with a healthy and an unhealthy food, the latter was selected with greater probability. In other words: A large basket of fruit alone, inspired less healthy to eat than a bit of fruit as an Alternative to the sweet Dessert.

ZOU