A new way to get teens to stop buying junk food – tell them that they're being manipulated

Teens need a junk food intervention. New research now provides some ideas on how to do it.

A study from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, reveals that some food companies handle them by consuming unhealthy and addictive processed foods as well as sugary drinks. found.

Part of the research divided 536 grade eight students from a Texas middle school into two groups between 2014 and 2016. The first group read a factual article about large food companies. He described them as manipulative marketers who were trying to entice young people to buy their junk food and make them addicted. The report also explained the misleading labels of the products and how they targeted young children and low-income families to buy them. The second group read the benefits of healthy eating.

Learning the manipulative practices of major brands has probably triggered the disdain of adolescents to be controlled by adults.

Students who read articles on food companies targeting them with addictive and unhealthy products chose fewer junk food snacks and picked up water instead of sodas the next day, the study revealed.

The next study, released on Monday, interviewed a new group of 362 grade eight students a year later in 2017 and found that exposing them to the deceptive practices of junk food brands led them to choose healthier options for the rest of the year. School year (has full three months). The effect was strongest among boys, who reduced their junk food consumption by 31% more than the group who read information about a healthy diet.

Why was the strategy so effective? The researchers said it was probably because learning from the manipulative practices of the big brands had probably triggered the disdain of teens to be controlled by adults.

"Most previous interventions seemed to presume that alternating adolescents with the long-term adverse consequences of a poor diet on health would be an effective way to motivate them to change their behavior," said Christopher Bryan, a professor. Behavioral Science Assistant at the University of Chicago. Booth School of Business. "This is clearly a problematic hypothesis. We thought this might be the main reason why no one was able to get teens to change their eating habits in a sustainable way. "

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Adolescent girls, on the other hand, shared the same negative instinctive response to the history of junk food withdrawal as boys. However, their daily shopping habits at the cafeteria remained similar to those of readers of traditional information on health education. The researchers concluded that, although regular health information has less of an impact on boys 'eating behavior and behaviors, it could still affect girls' choices, which, according to the study, may be felt Social pressure to be lean after learning the number of calories in healthy foods.

Advertising about junk food seems to work well for young people. Watching an additional television advertisement a week for a junk food product was correlated with the consumption of an additional 350 calories from foods high in salt, sugar and fat, according to a study conducted in 2018 by Cancer Research UK. Previous research found that junk food advertising disproportionately targets African American and Latin American children, with black children seeing 86% more TV ads for fast food, sweets, sugary drinks and unhealthy snacks than their counterparts. white peers.

Requests for comments from the American Beverage Association, the National Confectioners Association and the Sugar Association were not immediately returned. Some research suggests that junk food is not as important a factor as people think in the fight against the weight of Americans.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 21% of American adolescents are obese, an increase of 5% since 1980. It should also be noted that while the consumption of sugary drinks in children and adolescents decreased between 2001 and 2010 it nevertheless represents 10% of their total caloric intake.

Eating too much junk food at an early age, especially foods high in sodium, fat and sugar, could increase the risk of high blood pressure in teenagers they are aging. In addition, eating unhealthy foods can also negatively affect a teen's academic performance. The American Heart Association recommends children aged 2 to 18 years to consume less than 25 grams or six teaspoons of sugar a day.

A separate study found that food marketers specifically targeted child consumers as they could potentially become future adult consumers. And the foods are mainly high in sugar and fat, which leads teenagers to challenge the nationals dietary guidelines.