Focus On The Benefits of Food, Not Harms When Trying to Eat Better

by Monica Joshi

Do you remember how mom or dad told you not to touch the oven because it was too hot? Focusing on the "don't" part of the sentence made the child in you agitated, so you touched it anyway. Turns out, emphasizing the bad doesn't seem to elicit a positive response in any case. Especially with regards to food, telling your child or spouse to eat fruit so that they will stay healthy is better than telling them not to opt for the large fries with chipotle mayo on the side.

New research from Cornell University shows that "don't" messages, such as "don't eat the four cheese pizza with extra cheese", don't exactly work for a lot of us. Unless, of course, we are nutritionists who are well versed in the subject matter. The research seems to build on the behavioural science technique used for generations: positive reinforcement. Telling people that crunching on a celery stick will make them feel more awake, and then urging them to try it, is going to work a lot better than just saying "stop it!".

The researchers analyzed 43 published international studies that involved negative or positive nutrition messages. The more interesting part of the study was that they found that most people who did not know a lot about nutrition would rather be told what to eat, why they should eat it and what about it is good for them.

Lead author Brian Wansink, PhD director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, has a recommendation for parents:

“If you’re a parent, it’s better to focus on the benefits of broccoli and not the harms of hamburgers."

The researchers point to a really important issue: negative message focused public health campaigns will simply not get the job done. These new findings cast a dim light on the many public health campaigns. Most campaigns have used a fear approach to convince us to eat better, such as telling us that we shouldn't eat sugar-loaded candies or drink chocolate milk because of the potential harmful consequences.

The Cornell study findings, therefore, quite clearly show that focusing on what people should do is better than focusing on what people shouldn't, especially with regards to the 'healthiness' or lack thereof of foods. In other words, stressing the benefits of eating healthy foods is more effective than warning against the harms of eating unhealthy foods.

Based on this new research, the researchers recommend that when designing public health messaging campaigns, focusing on the positive consequences that target healthy behaviours is going to be more effective than focusing on the negative consequences of unhealthy behaviours. Fear and negative reinforcement messages will simply not be as effective.

This research is beneficial in creating more efficacious public health campaigns that target healthy eating practices in the US, where 1 in 3 adults are obese and about one-third of children and adolescents are considered overweight or obese. With obesity levels at an epidemic rate, this research could shed light on the kind of campaigns that will get people to perhaps even be excited about eating that next carrot stick... maybe even without the 150-calorie ranch dip!