Healthy food embedded in computer games could have a positive effect on kids

Parents who want their kids to choose bananas over chocolate bars may have a new training strategy: computer games.
A study released Monday in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine suggests that games featuring food and drink do influence what children choose to eat.

The findings might justify worries about the effect of online games that market unhealthy options. They also indicate that when games promote healthy options, kids are more likely to make the right choices.
Sandra Calvert and Tiffany Pempek, researchers at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., recruited 30 children to participate in the study. The children came from low-income African-American families, a group at risk for obesity and related health problems.
One group of children spent almost 10 minutes playing a simple game in which a Pac-Man-inspired character wins points by gobbling moving bananas, orange juice and other healthy items.
The second group got rewarded if the character guzzled soda or scarfed down cookies, chips and candy bars.
Afterwards, children selected a snack from options featured in the game.
Those who had played the healthy version of the game were more likely to choose a banana and orange juice. Those who had played the unhealthy version were more likely to pick soft drinks and chips.
A control group also selected a snack prior to playing the game.
Calvert, a psychology professor, says most of those in the control group surprised her by choosing the healthy options. “I thought they would go for the unhealthy foods.”
The behaviour of the control group highlights the fact that differences in decision-making arise after children encounter advertising, she says.
Calvert began thinking about the effects of new media on children when she contributed to a 2006 book titled “Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?”
The books’ authors concluded that food marketing significantly influences what children choose to eat.
“We noticed lots of things about television advertising, but nothing about newer technologies such as the Internet,” Calvert says.
Yet even the children in the Georgetown study, who came from low-income families, said they went online every day or multiple times per week. Some children, particularly girls, visit food marketing sites where brand names are embedded in games.
Marketers reason that familiarity breeds interest, Calvert says. “You put the name up there so kids are experiencing it.”
The researchers suggest media exposure could be a contributor to childhood obesity rates in the U.S., which have tripled over the past 40 years.
But Calvert also hypothesized that advertising tactics need not have negative outcomes.
“The basic idea was threat or opportunity. ’Advergames’ could be a threat, or they could be an opportunity to get children to eat healthier products.”
Nanci Guest, a registered dietitian with private practices in Toronto and Vancouver, says Canadian children aren’t far behind their American counterparts when it comes to being overweight or obese.
She notes the obesity rate among First Nations children and teens is two to three times higher than the Canadian average.
Guest cites 2004 data from Statistics Canada, a year in which 26 per cent of two- to 17-year-olds were overweight or obese. In 1978-79, only 15 per cent of youth in the same age range fell into the overweight or obese categories.
In the U.S., the number of youth who are overweight or obese has been at about 32 per cent since 1999.
Guest says the study’s small size may make the conclusion less reliable. “But theoretically, it seems like a great idea, because that is certainly a way to get kids’ attention, is through computer games.”
“Whenever you can get a positive message out, it’s a good thing, absolutely.”
Calvert says the small number of participants was sufficient to test the hypothesis.
Guest also cautions that knowing about healthy food options isn’t enough.
“Orange juice and bananas, or produce across the board, is more expensive. Knowledge is great, but if they can’t put it to practical use and make those purchases, then that’s a problem.”
Since online ads cost less than television commercials, Guest suggests companies could put some of their savings toward healthy food for children. She also envisions video game production companies putting money toward nutrition promotion.
“It would be nice if they had a pre-game that you couldn’t erase or fast-forward” to advertise healthy foods to kids. “Put the onus on companies making billions of dollars.”