Remarkable Improvements In Choosing Healthy Food

Obesity is generally caused by overeating and lacking physical activity. Unlike wealthy family, those who are low-income and food-insecure can’t afford the same variety of healthy food and have limited physical activity resources. Second, they may choose unhealthy food and overeat mindlessly since eating is one of the most mindless activity humans do. Third, members of low-income families, including children, may face poor mental health, including anxiety and depression due to the food insecurity, low-wage work, poor health care and poor housing, etc.

Consumers tend to overeat during a cognitive strain. The evidence suggests that you would be more likely to select food that are high in fat and sugar when your mind is loaded with effortful work. (Kahneman, 2011)

One of our market research is to find out the effect of five senses on participants’ eating behavior, which is designed as a comparative experiment. Our hypothesis is participants tend to eat slowly and more healthily in a clean, soothing, somewhat quiet, bright, fresh environment.

Our independent variables are different levels of cleanliness, brightness, temperature, smell and noise (music). Dependent variables are duration (min) of a meal and the estimated consumed calorie of each person. We will invite 20 obese people (10 male and 10 female) from local low-income families to take a 3-week meal experiment. We will have food prepared, participants can help themselves to choose what to eat. To prevent the interaction between different independent variables, only one variable will change at one time.

Our second research problem is how participants’ eating and workout behavioral are influenced under peer pressure.

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It will be a One group Pre-test, Post-test. We will recruit 40 local low-income obese volunteers who want to adopt a healthy behavior, but find it difficult to take a 28 day experiment. In the first 7 days, they are required to send the pictures of any food they eat and everyday workout (including number of steps) to researchers anonymously. In the next 21 days, they will be assigned randomly into three Facebook groups which has 5, 10, 15 and 20 members. They need to share the pictures of whatever they eat and workout (including number of steps) in the group. They are also allowed to chat and find each other to work out together. The independent variables are different social context and size of the group. The dependent variables are calories consumed and the amount of physical activity. My hypothesis is people will live a healthier lifestyle. Also, the smaller the group is, the more salient the change will be. This research makes sense because people care about what other people think about you.

We assume that low-income families eat unhealthily because it is too expensive and bothering to prepare healthy food. Instead, they prefer running into the local fast food restaurant and take advantage of junk food that only cost a buck. In our third market research, we want to use Operant Conditioning approach to find out if effective reinforcement that can modify participants’ eating habits. We will recruit 30 local low-income obese volunteers to take a 60-day experiment. In the first 5 days, they are required to send the pictures of any food they eat. In the next 30 days, everytime participants do 3 little things that contribute to eating well, such as eating fruits as snacks, reducing the amount of salt you use, buying reduced fat milk and preparing healthy food at home, they will get positive reinforcement such as a certain amount of grocery store gift card. On the 26th to 30th day, they should send us the pictures of their diets. Researchers should compare the first 5-day diet with last 5-day diet to see if there’s any remarkable improvements in choosing healthy food. My hypothesis is participants are more knowledgeable after 30-day’s training. They should be self-motivated to maintain healthful behaviors then.

Although our market research findings could nudge low-income people towards a healthier diet, it cannot improve their financial status. Their mental health problems caused by low income are not easy to solve. With limited food budgets, they have to buy cheap foods. They are still facing challenges in affording a healthy lifestyle.