Online Games Can Promote Nutritious Food

Kids

oi-Staff

By Staff

Wednesday, July 8, 2009, 12:50

You do what you see. No, not from elders but from characters you see on TV, and now its Video Games. In the game, Pac Man , if a child makes it eat bananas in lieu of soda, than the gamer, i.e. the child him self has every possibility to do the same.

According to a new study, researchers say that, Computer games can influence kids' food choices whether toward healthy snacks or unhealthy products. The revelation comes after few researchers from the Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., conducted a study involving 30 low-income, African American children age 9 to 10 years.

The study went simple. The students were divided into two categories. Then one of the groups were made to play a game based on Pac-man. The game rewarded them for having their computer character choose bananas, orange juice and other healthy foods and beverages. Similarly, the second group played a different version of the same game that instead rewarded consumption of soda, candy bars, cookies and bags of potato chips.

These two groups were later instructed to select a snack from among options featured in the game after playing, whereas a third, control group selected a snack and beverage before playing the healthy version of the game. The children reported liking both versions of the game and played for an average of 9 minutes and 32 seconds.

As expected, Children who played the healthy version before selecting a snack were significantly more likely than those playing the unhealthy version to choose a banana and orange juice instead of soda and potato chips. "With only 10 minutes of exposure, our results revealed that children selected and ate whatever snacks were being marketed by the advergame, healthy or not," the authors said.

Hence, the findings suggest that online games could be used to promote nutritious foods.

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