Attractive food images can nudge teens towards healthy choices, says NIN study

Can an enticing image of a healthy snack persuade adolescents to give it a try? A new study by researchers at the ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN) suggests it can. It found that visually appealing presentations of healthy foods can significantly increase adolescents’ willingness to consume them, highlighting a potential new strategy for nutrition communication in the digital era.

Researchers first created a pool of 150 images featuring both healthy and unhealthy foods. These images were pre-tested among 43 school-going adolescents, whose ratings helped select 15 final images for the study. The healthy food images included fruits, millets, pulses, dairy products, nuts and seeds, presented either in a simple format or in an enhanced, visually attractive style designed to maximise appeal.