Member-only story
How to Win the Healthy Eating Battle
One of the most common New Year’s resolutions must be the promise to eat healthier food. We all aim for “less sugar” and “fewer fries” but we also know how difficult it is to trade these delicious snacks for healthier carrot sticks when both are available. We experience a battle between our short-term and long-term selves: our short-term selves beg for the fries because they taste so good, while our long-term selves argue in favor of the carrot sticks because we want to live longer with better fitness.
Perceptions of how delicious a particular food tastes aren’t entirely explained by the food itself. Our brains are storytellers that build associations and assumptions based on past experiences. This often means that we overgeneralize patterns in a way that doesn’t necessarily reflect reality. For example, consumers naturally believe that the more unhealthy a food is, the more tasty it is.
Even preschoolers feel like they’re being cheated when an adult tells them to eat something because it’s good for them. Kids eat fewer crackers if they listen to a story about how crackers are healthy than if they listen to the same story with no message about health benefits.
Adolescents may be particularly vulnerable to unhealthy eating because their brains are still maturing and their self-control ability hasn’t yet reached its peak. So…
