Willpower alone often isn't enough to eat better. A whopping 95 percent of diets fail within six months, research shows.
A better strategy: Arrange your environment so that healthy choices are convenient, attractive, and normal (or, CAN). Experts recently reviewed the research on food choice behaviors and found that these three tactics could help people eat healthier. Their conclusions were published in the journal Psychology & Marketing.
Most of our food choices are made on instinct, the researchers explain. The CAN principle works by biasing our quick decisions toward healthy foods.
Here are some ways to apply the CAN principle:
- To make healthy foods more convenient, place them where you can see them. Keep a bowl of fruit on the kitchen counter, for example. Or cut up fruits and veggies and place them in plastic baggies so they're easy to grab for a quick snack.
- To make nutritious choices more attractive, give them an appetizing name. Call broccoli Dinosaur Trees to make them more appealing to kids, for example. Putting fruit in a nicer bowl also helps people to eat more of it.
- People like foods that they feel are normal to eat or prepare. Make a habit of setting salad bowls on the dinner table nightly, even if they're not used. Better yet, serve a side salad with dinner every night!
Watch Roxcy's tips for making a kid-friendly salad.
Find a Dartmouth-Hitchcock provider to talk about wellness and nutrition.
Learn more about D-H dietitians.
Find more family-friendly recipes and healthy eating tips in the Cooking Up Health Stories in the Health and Wellness newsletter.