Exciting and tempting descriptions ‘can encourage people to eat vegetables’

More people could be encouraged to eat healthy foods like vegetables simply by describing them in more exciting terms.

This is according to a new study from Stanford University, which suggested that using the kind of flavourful, tempting descriptions usually reserved for decadent foods can help combat the perception of healthy foods as being less tasty, satisfying and filling.

Researchers collaborated with Stanford Residential and Dining Enterprises to conduct a study in a large dining hall Certain vegetables were labelled using four categories: basic, healthy-restrictive, healthy-positive or indulgent.

Green beans, for example, were described variously as simply green beans, "light 'n' low-carb green beans and shallots", "healthy energy-boosting green beans and shallots", or "sweet sizzlin' green beans and crispy shallots" to fit the four categories.

Diners chose vegetables with indulgent labelling 25 percent more than basic labelling, 35 percent more than healthy-positive and 41 percent more than healthy-restrictive. This suggests that labelling foods purely in terms of health attributes rather than flavour actually discourages diners from choosing healthy options.

Alia Crum, an assistant professor of psychology at Stanford University, said: "Changing the way we label healthy foods is one step toward changing the pernicious mindset that healthy eating is depriving and distasteful."

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