Watch Out for This New Practice That Can Undermine Your Health Food Choices

Choosing between visual image of food items using finger touch (e.g. on an ipad) can prompt pleasure-seeking brain messages to overpower those rational, health-seeking ones, according to new research. It turns the choice into more of an emotional one than an intellectual one.

You may have noticed certain restaurants starting to use touch-screen devices, with food images, to allow customers to place orders instead of a traditional printed menu. Chili’s and Applebee’s, for example, have rolled out touchscreen ordering systems at some locations.

The researchers conducted a number of experiments comparing different interfaces, including mouse and desktop, and stylus. However, the touch interface consistently produced more hedonistic, less healthy choices.

For example, 95% of those that used an iPad ordered cheesecake, compared with 73% that were using a desktop computer. Interestingly, however, if the ‘order’ button was placed so that the subject was no longer looking at the picture, then the hedonistic association declined, even on the touchscreen device. The research theorize that this is because the touchscreen plus image-click ordering mimics the reach-out-and-grab action that as humans we can be naturally drawn to.

The bottom line: Stay mindful of the effect of food marketing, and in this case, touch-screen ordering, to limits its effects on your food choices. Know that food marketers will use this to influence your choices.

Original news articles here.

Tags: food choices touch screen food ordering

Author: Romilly Hodges, MS CNS

https://www.drkarafitzgerald.com/

Romilly Hodges, CNS CKNS CDN IFMCP mBANT CNHC, is a clinical nutritionist and Programs Director for Dr. Kara Fitzgerald. Romilly has written peer-reviewed publications, book contributions and many online articles. She is the author of the book Immune Resilience; The Breakthrough Plan to Protect Your Body and Fight Disease published in 2022 by Avery, a division of Penguin Random House. She has contributed to professional training courses and supervised practice programs for functional medicine and nutrition professionals. Romilly has also worked in clinical research, including designing the study diet for the first-of-its-kind epigenetic diet study run through the National University of Natural Medicine, as well as follow-up clinical research. She currently serves on the Board of the Accreditation Council for Nutrition Professional Education. We have both the opportunity and responsibility to change the trajectory of chronic disease through targeted, personalized nutrition, lifestyle and environmental interventions.

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Watch Out for This New Practice That Can Undermine Your Health Food Choices

Author: Romilly Hodges, MS CNS

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