Effects of increased availability and economic incentives on preadolescents' healthier beverages choices: An experimental study.

This field experimental study examined how increased availability and economic incentives for healthier beverages affect preadolescents' actual healthier beverage choices in a real-world setting. In addition, the impact of preadolescents' descriptive norm towards healthier beverages, price awareness and parental restrictive rules regarding beverage consumption were explored. During the experiment, preadolescents could independently buy two beverages from an assortment with a total of eight beverages.

Decoupling of desire and salivation over repeated chocolate consumption and the moderating role of food legalizing.

This study aimed to investigate the responses in desire and salivation during repeated chocolate consumption, and examining how these responses are influenced by a relaxed relationship with food, or 'food legalizing'. Salivation is often used as a proxy for desire, though evidence for this correlation is mixed. We hypothesized that both desire and salivation would decrease with repeated chocolate intake.

My feed is what I eat? A qualitative study on adolescents' awareness and appreciation of food marketing on social media.

Background: Adolescents spend much of their time online and hence are exposed to a lot of non-core (energy-dense, nutrient-poor) social media food marketing (SMFM). This may influence their dietary choices and health. This present study aimed to investigate adolescents' perceptions towards SMFM; that is, their recognition and appreciation of SMFM.

A qualitative study exploring the perceptions of children, parents and school staff towards the development and implementation of school lunch provision within primary schools in the Netherlands.

Background: There is no tradition of serving school lunches in primary schools in the Netherlands. Most children tend to bring their own packed lunch, however these are often nutritionally suboptimal. While school lunch provision can aid healthy eating behavior amongst children, its introduction would constitute a profound change for children, parents and school staff.

Bringing down barriers to children's healthy eating: a critical review of opportunities, within a complex food system.

This narrative review revises the scientific evidence of recent years on healthy eating in children and adolescents, making sense of promising avenues of action, from a food system perspective. A conceptual framework is provided to better understand how eating habits of children and adolescents are shaped to identify key multisectoral approaches that should be implemented to promote healthier diets. The following influencing factors are discussed: individual factors (physiological and psychological factors, food preferences and food literacy competencies), factors within the personal and socio-cultural food environments, external food environments, and the supply chain.

Development of food literacy in children and adolescents: implications for the design of strategies to promote healthier and more sustainable diets.

Food literacy has emerged as a key individual trait to promote the transformation of food systems toward healthy and sustainable diets. Childhood and adolescence are key periods for establishing the foundations of eating habits. Different food literacy competencies are acquired as children develop different cognitive abilities, skills, and experiences, contributing to the development of critical tools that allow them to navigate a complex food system.

Exploring the role of decision support systems in promoting healthier and more sustainable online food shopping: A card sorting study.

This study aims to identify opportunities and barriers in developing and implementing Food Shopping Support Systems (FSSS) for healthier and more sustainable choices, given the growing consumer demand and persistent societal problems related to food. The study examined the social and technical value of FSSS in an early development stage through one-on-one expert interviews (n = 20) and consumer focus groups (4 groups, n = 19). Experts were employed in the fields of behavioral sciences, digital marketing, decision aids, software development, persuasive technologies, and public health and sustainability.

Content of lunchboxes of Dutch primary school children and their perceptions of alternative healthy school lunch concepts.

Objective: To investigate the content of lunchboxes of primary school children and to examine children's support and preferences for alternative healthy school lunch concepts.

Design: A cross-sectional study among Dutch children from seven primary schools. The content of the lunchboxes was assessed by photographs.

Which factors promote and prohibit successful implementation and normalization of a healthy school lunch program at primary schools in the Netherlands?

Background: A school provided healthy lunch might help to improve the nutritional quality of children's lunches. However, in the Netherlands, school lunch programs are not common. The aim of this study was to identify factors that promote or inhibit the implementation of a school lunch program at primary schools, from the viewpoint of school professionals.

The use of food swaps to encourage healthier online food choices: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Online grocery stores offer opportunities to encourage healthier food choices at the moment that consumers place a product of their choice in their basket. This study assessed the effect of a swap offer, Nutri-Score labeling, and a descriptive norm message on the nutrient profiling (NP) score of food choices in an online food basket. Additionally explored was whether these interventions made it more motivating and easier for consumers to select healthier foods and whether potential effects were moderated by consumer health interest.

Making sense of adolescent-targeted social media food marketing: A qualitative study of expert views on key definitions, priorities and challenges.

Traditional food marketing stimulates adolescents' consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods. These dietary behaviours may track into adulthood and lead to weight gain, obesity and related non-communicable diseases. While social media use in adolescents has proliferated, little is known about the content of food marketing within these platforms, and how this impacts adolescents' dietary behaviours.

Dutch Preadolescents' Food Consumption at School: Influence of Autonomy, Competence and Parenting Practices.

Eating habits appear to become less healthy once children move into adolescence. Adolescence is characterized by increasing independence and autonomy. Still, parents continue influencing adolescents' eating habits.

The effect of a brief mindfulness intervention on perception of bodily signals of satiation and hunger.

An increasing number of studies investigate the effects of mindfulness on food intake and weight outcomes, while the underlying mechanisms by which mindfulness exerts its effects have received less attention. We conducted two pre-registered studies to shed light on the frequently proposed yet largely understudied hypothesis that mindfulness improves awareness of bodily signals of satiation and hunger. We assessed the ability to perceive the onset of bodily signals of satiation with the two-step water load test (Study 1) and the ability to perceive the onset of bodily signals of hunger with the preload test (Study 2).

Internally regulated eating style: a comprehensive theoretical framework.

Internally regulated eating style, the eating style that is driven by internal bodily sensations of hunger and satiation, is a concept that has received increasing attention in the literature and health practice over the last decades. The various attempts that have been made so far to conceptualise internally regulated eating have taken place independently of one another, and each sheds light on only parts of the total picture of what defines internally regulated eating. This has resulted in a literature that is rather fragmented.

The Impact of a Gradual Healthier Assortment among Vocational Schools Participating in a School Canteen Programme: Evidence from Sales and Student Survey Data.

Many adolescents have poor eating habits. As a major part of their caloric intake takes place at school, the present study aims to examine the effect of increasing the availability of healthier foods in school canteens on sales, student attitude and self-reported behaviour. A quasi-experimental study was carried out at two vocational schools in the Netherlands over a 10-month period, where the visible share of healthier products was gradually or abruptly increased from 60% to 80%.

Improving dietary intake during lunch through the provision of a healthy school lunch at Dutch primary schools: design of a pretest-posttest effectiveness study.

Background: Since there is a shift from eating lunch at home to eating lunch at primary schools in the Netherlands, providing a school lunch may be an important opportunity to improve the diet quality of Dutch children. Therefore, the aim of this Healthy School Lunch project is to encourage healthy eating behavior of children at primary schools by offering a healthy school lunch, based on the guidelines for a healthy diet. In this study, two research questions will be addressed.

Served Portion Sizes Affect Later Food Intake Through Social Consumption Norms.

Portion sizes of commercially available foods have increased, and there is evidence that exposure to portion sizes recalibrates what is perceived as 'normal' and subsequently, how much food is selected and consumed. The present study aims to explore the role of social (descriptive and injunctive) and personal portion size norms in this effect. Across two experiments, participants were either visually exposed to (Study 1, = 329) or actually served (Study 2, = 132) a smaller or larger than normal food portion.

What's for lunch? The content and quality of lunches consumed by Dutch primary schoolchildren and the differences between lunches consumed at home and at school.

Background: Lunch is an important part of a healthy diet, which is essential for the development, growth and academic performance of school-aged children. Currently there is an increasing number of Dutch primary schoolchildren who are transitioning from eating lunch at home to school. There is limited knowledge about the current quality of the lunches consumed by primary schoolchildren in the Netherlands and whether there are any differences between lunches consumed at home or at school.

Changing the behaviour of children living in Dutch disadvantaged neighbourhoods to improve breakfast quality: Comparing the efficacy of three school-based strategies.

Children's breakfast habits are suboptimal. A novel school-based education programme was developed and tested with the aim of improving children's attitude, knowledge and breakfast quality. A pre- and post-test design was used with four conditions: group-based education, role modelling, tailored feedback with goal setting, and a combination of these three delivery modes.

The effect of a default-based nudge on the choice of whole wheat bread.

Consumer choices are often influenced by the default option presented. This study examines the effect of whole wheat bread as a default option in a sandwich choice situation. Whole wheat bread consists of 100% whole grain and is healthier than other bread types that are commonly consumed, such as brown or white bread.

Self-crafting vegetable snacks: testing the IKEA-effect in children.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to test whether the IKEA-effect (Norton , 2012) - better liking for self-crafted products than for identical products crafted by others - can be exploited to increase liking and consumption of vegetable snacks in children.

Design/methodology/approach: A between-subjects experiment was conducted at an after school care facility. In total, 86 children aged four to six either crafted a peacock with vegetables or with non-food objects following an example.

Are school meals a viable and sustainable tool to improve the healthiness and sustainability of children´s diet and food consumption? A cross-national comparative perspective.

There is little agreement among governments, institutions, scientists and food activists as to how to best tackle the challenging issues of health and sustainability in the food sector. This essay discusses the potential of school meals as a platform to promote healthy and sustainable food behavior. School meal programs are of particular interest for improving public diet because they reach children at a population scale across socio-economic classes and for over a decade of their lives, and because food habits of children are more malleable than those of adults.

Breakfast barriers and opportunities for children living in a Dutch disadvantaged neighbourhood.

The objective of this study was to explore parents', children's, and experts' beliefs and experiences about breakfast motivation, opportunity, and ability and elicit their thoughts on effective interventions to encourage healthy breakfast consumption. The setting was a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Focus groups with mothers and children and semi-structured individual interviews with experts were conducted.