Modern trends in student nutrition and methods of encouraging healthy eating

Abstract

Purpose: to emphasize the effect of encouraging students to healthy eating based on the use of behavioral economics methods, in particular, context and presentation of information. Materials and Methods: The structure of the study included: highlighting the main problems of students' healthy eating and applying behavioral economics methods that were developed on the basis of our research (social experiment method), followed by statistical processing of the data obtained. Results: The absolute percentage of sales of dishes and drinks with green, yellow and red marking in cafeterias and canteens of Sumy State University at the initial stage, and after implementing of behavioral methods. The most significant changes occurred in sales of dishes with red labeling: it decreased by 20%; parallelly sales of green-labeled dishes increased significantly from 28% (before the experiment) up to 38% (after changing location compared to other dishes and using visual tips) and yellow-labeled dishes: the sales` index increased by 10%.Using of behavioral methods has also influenced the choice of drinks, but not significantly. Sales` index of “green” drinks during the experiment had increased by 4%, “yellow” – by 3%. Conclusions: Simple behavioral methods, such as changing default settings (changing location/display), disseminating simple and meaningful nutrition information, and labeling, can improve people's food choices, shifting it towards a healthier one, which in turn will lead to a significant reduction in the prevalence of cardiovascular disease, obesity and related diseases.