In recent years, childhood obesity has emerged as a significant health problem in developed countries. Approximately 17% of children and adolescents in the United States are obese and the incidence of childhood obesity in the United States has tripled from a generation ago. At the core, obesity is attributed to the imbalance of calories consumed and expended, consuming more calories than are expended leads to an increase in weight. However, to maintain a healthy diet, adolescents need to consume not only the right number of calories but healthful food, such as fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2004 show that while 99.9% of adolescents between ages 12 to 18 consume fruits and vegetables, only 0.9% of these adolescents consume the USDA recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables.

A growing body of research that applies behavioral economics principles to food choices, such as “nudging” and pre-commitment suggests that subtle behavioral cues can cause changes in eating habits. Thaler and Sunstein (2009) define a nudge as “any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.” A nudge can take the form of specific placement of items in the cafeteria or the use of colors and labels to influence choice.

Building on prior research, the main objective of this study is to investigate the effects of behavioral nudges and pre-ordering on the selection of fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy among National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participant elementary and middle school children in the Alachua County School District in Florida. This study employs a pre-ordering computer program that utilizes a combination of messages, labels and the USDA MyPlate information to nudge children to make healthier choices. Our approach incorporates the main benefit of pre-selection - avoiding temptation in the cafeteria, and also goes one step further by nudging children towards healthier choices. This study also accomplishes two secondary objectives: 1) development of a simple food selection software (with visual behavioral cues) that can be utilized in schools; and 2) less waste in the cafeteria as students move towards pre-selection and thus cafeterias better match preparations with demand.

The study took place over the course of four weeks. In the first two weeks, baseline information on selection of fruits, vegetables and low fat dairy were collected for all students in grades four to seven who purchased a school lunch. In the final two weeks, students that enrolled in the study pre-ordered their lunches in the morning via a web-based computer program. Our preliminary results show that students who participated in the pre-ordering program increased their selection of fruit, vegetable and dairy servings over the course of two weeks.