What health messaging can help us make better choices at the vending machine?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-05-09 01:00

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Labels reminding us of the healthiness (or lack thereof) and the calorie count of items at the vending machine may help us make healthier choices with our drinks but not our snacks, according to an international study. The researchers tested four different health messaging strategies across 267 machines in Philadelphia, USA; a reminder of the state's sweetened beverage tax, green labels for healthy products, a full traffic light system labelling products as healthy, moderately healthy or unhealthy and a label on each product showing how much exercise is needed to work off the calories. Looking at purchase data over a year, researchers say the traffic light system and the exercise messages were the most effective at reducing unhealthy beverage purchases, however they say none of the interventions appeared to have much impact on snack choices.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Pennsylvania, USA

Funder: This study was funded by award R01DK113307 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (Dr Roberto, principal investigator).

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