Project description
Improving nutritional choices to combat obesity
Obesity rates in developed countries are reaching alarming levels, and the associated health risks threaten equity and markets. Governments are implementing policies to combat diet related diseases but often fail to achieve their targets. Research has shown that individuals who have experienced deprivation are more likely to choose less healthy options when shopping for food. Funded by the European Research Council, the FOODHABITS project seeks to improve current policies by conducting research that provides empirical evidence on the development of food habits, self-control, and consistency in individual food choices when purchasing groceries. Using data from the food market, the study aims to understand different nutritional attitudes and inform policymakers on specific targets and needs for effective public interventions.
Objective
The proposed research aims to improve our understanding of individual choices over which foods to purchase. The research aims to make fundamental contributions to models of choice and preference formation, and the outputs will inform the development of policy interventions that seek to improve nutritional outcomes. Our particular interest will be to better understand: (i) the importance of the foods available at home in childhood in influencing choices that young adults make over which foods to eat, (ii) the relevance of temptation and self-control in explaining poor nutritional food choices, and the ways that advertising might influence these behaviours, and (iii) the important interactions that exist between the ways that people spend their time (for example work and physical activity) and the food choices that they make and how this determines nutritional outcomes.
A proper understanding of the way that preferences are formed, and the ways that they might be influenced, is key to the design of effective public policy. The food market is a good place to study these questions for a number of reasons. First, people make decisions with high frequency and in different economic conditions, which helps provide variation needed for identification of key parameters of interest. Second, we observe the same individuals making choices both for immediate consumption and for future consumption, which will also help us with identification. Third, the food industry is of considerable policy interest. People in developed countries are getting fatter at an alarming rate. To the extent that people do not take account of the effects of this on themselves in the future and on others then they are making suboptimal decisions; they and society could potentially be made better off by policy intervention, but it is important that we have a good understanding of what impact these interventions are likely to have.
Fields of science
Not validated
Not validated
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantHost institution
WC1E 7AE London
United Kingdom
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.