Healthy Choice For Healthy Living

By Cara

Wednesday, April 14, 2010, 16:40

Those who are health conscious and avoid eating unhealthy food, when it come to buying for others, people choose foods that are less healthy.

In a series of studies on food choice, author Juliano Laran from University of Miami discovered that consumers exert more self-control when they make choices for themselves.

In one study, participants were asked to make a sequence of four choices from 16 items that were healthy. The list included items like raisins, celery sticks, cheerios, chocolate bars, cookies, ice cream, and doughnuts. Half of the participants were asked to choose four items for themselves, while the others were asked to choose four items for a friend.

"When making choices for themselves, participants chose a balance of healthy and indulgent food items. But while making choices for others, participants chose mostly indulgent food items like chocolates, doughnuts, cookies etc," said Laran.

In supermarkets, most people who buy for themselves make careful choices. The same consumer while buying for friends and other people tend to buy indulgent food items.

Consumer choices became more balanced after they were made aware of a healthy goal when making choices for others.

The author suggests that education could help consumers make more balanced choices when they are shopping for others. He also suggests that this phenomenon may be affecting public health.

"One of the reasons the population gets more and more obese is that a lot of the food we consume is chosen by other people, like friends throwing a party or parents buying for their children," says Laran.

Taking responsibility for their own choices instead of letting others choose could help consumers fight against obesity and lead a healthier lifestyle. Also those gifting food items to other should also make a better choice. For example, instead of picking up cola bottles you can choose juice or instead of chocolates you can give a basket of fresh fruits.