How Cafeteria Lighting Can Change Adolescent Healthful Choices of Food

Adolescents do not select enough fresh fruit and vegetables at school and are resistant to didactic nutrition lessons. Retail grocery chains have successfully used enhanced lighting to direct consumer choice. We will determine whether we demonstrate the same effect in middle-school cafeterias. A small inexpensive change that increases healthy food selection may reduce adolescent obesity. The pilot study includes 2 control and 2 treatment middle schools in Stamford, Connecticut in which we compare fruit and vegetable choice before and after lighting installation. This paper describes issues emerging during planning. We expected the intervention to be simple – screwing in specialty light bulbs -- but it was not. Each cafeteria is different. Placement of fixtures, food safety codes, electrical circuitry, matching of schools, and school cooperation all affected installation. All were solvable and will not affect study completion by 7/2011. These initial findings will guide full implementation of a forthcoming study with enough power to measure effect. Behavioral economics research shows that we can gently prod change by adjusting the environment in subtle ways.