Unhealthy food is perceived as tastier when it is more abundant, research shows

Two experiments in Austria and Germany using images of meals containing healthy and unhealthy foods indicated that people tend to believe that unhealthy food tastes better when more unhealthy food items are available. This finding emerged despite the presentation of both healthy and unhealthy foods that were equally tasty on average. The research was published in the journal Pull.

Scientists often distinguish between healthy and unhealthy foods. Healthy foods are generally those that contain a significant amount of essential nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, fiber and healthy fats, relative to their calorie content. Examples include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds and lean proteins. These foods are crucial for supporting body functions and promoting good health. They help maintain weight and regulate metabolism. Research also links consumption of these foods to a reduced risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

Unhealthy food, on the other hand, often contains many calories but little nutritional value. These foods often contain excessive amounts of added sugars, unhealthy fats and sodium. Common examples include processed snacks, sugary drinks, fast food and products with high levels of artificial additives. Frequent consumption of these foods is linked to several health problems, including obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

Despite these health implications, unhealthy foods are typically designed to be highly palatable, using various additives that specifically improve their taste. Numerous studies have confirmed that people generally believe that unhealthy food tastes better than healthy food. It’s possible that people perceive a trade-off between health and taste, leading them to assume that healthier options are less tasty.

The study’s lead researcher, Sonja Kunz, along with her team, sought to investigate whether individuals develop misconceptions about the relationship between health and taste, based on a single context or by comparing different scenarios.

“According to widespread lay belief, people think that healthy food cannot be tasty, which is confusing because there are many healthy and tasty food options,” explains Kunz, a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Vienna. “We wanted to better understand why people still have these negative views about healthy food. This would help us encourage people to eat healthy without feeling like they have to sacrifice taste.”

The researchers theorized that the belief that “unhealthy equals tasty” is especially evident in situations where individuals frequently encounter tasty but unhealthy foods. To investigate this hypothesis, they conducted two experiments: one in a laboratory and one online.

The first experiment involved 114 undergraduate psychology students from the University of Vienna and 21 volunteers, all native speakers of German and not currently on a diet. Participants were asked to imagine that they were tasting food at a newly opened restaurant. They viewed images of purported meals from this restaurant, each accompanied by ratings of the meal’s taste and healthfulness.

After all meals were rated, participants were asked to rate the overall healthiness and taste of the food offered at the restaurant. They also shared their views on the relationship between health and taste in the restaurant, their general views on this topic and their interest in health.

Not all participants viewed the same meals. They were randomly divided into three groups: the first group saw mainly tasty and healthy food, the second group saw mainly unhealthy and tasty food, and the third group saw an equal amount of tasty and not-tasty food, both healthy and unhealthy food. foods.

The results of the first experiment indicated that participants developed a stronger association between unhealthy foods and taste when they were presented with more unhealthy and tasty foods than when they were presented with healthy and tasty foods.

The second experiment was conducted online with 209 participants recruited through the TALK online access panel to represent the German population by age, gender and region. The average age of participants was 45 years and 49% were female. The setup was similar to the first experiment, but instead of a restaurant, participants thought they were choosing food from a new delivery app called ‘Eats’. Furthermore, instead of general health and taste beliefs, the researchers measured participants’ Protestant ethics.

The Protestant ethic is a concept that refers to an individual’s commitment to dedication, discipline and strong responsibility, often related to their moral and ethical attitude towards work. Someone with a strong Protestant ethic exhibits a high level of commitment to hard work and ethical behavior in both their professional and personal life.

The findings of the second experiment supported those of the first. The negative association between health and taste was stronger when participants viewed more unhealthy and tasty foods than when they viewed more healthy and tasty foods. Participants with stronger Protestant ethics were slightly more likely to believe that healthy food tastes better. But the findings held up even after controlling for Protestant ethics.

“The main takeaway is that food environments with lots of unhealthy food can give the illusion that unhealthy food is tastier, although this may be wrong. Therefore, policymakers must create food environments with many (not just a few) healthy food options,” Kunz told PsyPost.

The study contributes to the scientific understanding of how individuals form beliefs about the quality of food. However, there are also limitations to take into account. Notably, the experiments only involved photos of food and presented data on health and taste through star ratings. This is probably very different from the way people form impressions about food in real life, where the actual taste and smell of food play the key role.

“We manipulated how much food was healthy and tasty in the presented environments, but we don’t know how (un)healthy and tasty food is distributed in the real environment,” Kunz noted. “We also showed participants photos of foods and told them whether they were healthy and tasty, but we do not know whether participants trusted this information and how they would rate the foods themselves.”

“We want to better understand how people form beliefs about food, especially the relationship between health and taste, and how we can change these to help people eat healthier. Ideally, this means using the approach from the research to design interventions that change the food environment to help consumers have a positive view of healthy eating.”

The article ‘To see is to misbelieve: consumers wrongly believe that unhealthy food tastes better when there is more of it’ was written by Sonja Kunz, Niklas Pivecka, Clara Dietachmair and Arnd Florack.