5208.0 Behavioral Innovations that Nudge Students to Eat Healthier Lunches

Wednesday, October 31, 2012: 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Oral
Research presented in this session will highlight specific applications of behavioral science principles designed to nudge children to take and eat healthier lunches at school. These applications are making fruits and vegetables more accessible, framing options in order to encourage healthy choices, pre-ordering lunches through text messages, and using environmental cues such as making fruit more visible and attractive, creating visually stimulating signs for food options, and introducing a convenience line that serves only healthier options. Given the very recent regulations just announced by the USDA, this area of research is very important since it identifies ways to improve children’s lunch-time selection and eating decisions while preserving choice.
Session Objectives: 1. Explain how certain principles in the behavioral sciences can be applied to improve the healthy attributes of foods children take and eat during lunch at school 2. Identify low-cost or no-cost changes that can be applied to virtually any school lunchroom and that encourage selection and consumption of healthier lunches 3. List different evaluation techniques to assess the impact of the applied methods.
Moderator:
April Harris, MPH CHES

1:10pm
Improving student school lunch choices using a web and text based pre-ordering system
Alice Ammerman, DrPH, RD, David Cavallo, MPH, RD and Melissa Cunningham, MS, MPH, RD
1:30pm
Total Lunchroom Makeovers: How Principles of Asymmetric Paternalism can Address New School Lunchroom Guidelines
Andrew Hanks, David Just, Co-Director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs and Brian Wansink, Director, Cornell Food and Brand Lab; John S Dyson Chaired Professor, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

See individual abstracts for presenting author's disclosure statement and author's information.

Organized by: Public Health Education and Health Promotion
Endorsed by: Food and Nutrition, School Health Education and Services, Community Health Planning and Policy Development

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH) , Masters Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES)