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Smarter Lunchrooms: Payment Systems that Nudge Healthier School Lunch Choices
Author(s) -
Wansink Brian,
Just David R.,
Payne Collin R.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.322.1
Subject(s) - cafeteria , cash , payment , debit card , business , advertising , food choice , revenue , consumption (sociology) , marketing , credit card , medicine , finance , pathology , social science , sociology
How can increasingly scrutinized school lunch programs encourage children to make better food choices? Placing restrictions on the use of prepaid lunch accounts use may influence nutritious food selection without eliminating free choice or reducing profitability. A controlled field experiment in a school lunch cafeteria involved 166 students with a modal age of 19‐years. These students were allowed to purchase their lunch in one of three ways: 1) cash only, 2) cash and an unrestricted debit card, or 3) cash and a restricted debit card that could be used to purchase items marked as healthy. Their selection of items and intake was measured, and follow‐up questions were asked. Those given restricted debit cards ate significantly fewer calories than those given the unrestricted card 517.3 p=0.045), and a much higher percentage of what they selected and consumed were healthy foods compared to both those given an unrestricted debit card and those given cash (78.6%, p=0.000). This cross‐sectional study of older teenagers shows that restricting prepaid lunch cards to foods marked as reasonably healthy dramatically improved nutritious food choice and consumption. Because this payment procedure still allowed students to use their own cash to purchase less healthy options, it did not unduly restrict dining options or reduce cafeteria revenue.