Smiley Faces Help Kids Eat Healthy Foods

Cincinnati researchers found that adding a smiley face to healthy foods led more children to make more nutritious food choices.

Children in an elementary school were shown to eat healthier foods when a smiley face was created near the food.

“Using smiley faces as a behavior modification tool sounds like a positive way to encourage children to choose healthier foods,” said Nina Eng, RD, chief clinical dietitian at Plainview Hospital. “If a smiley face on fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products will encourage healthy eating behavior in children, perhaps it should be considered in New York schools.”

While this research was done on children, a similar program could help adults make healthier food choices.

“An example of an adult equivalent of this is using a traffic light label to determine if a food is healthy,” Ms. Eng said. “Foods are labeled with colors that correlate with the amount of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt, and calories in 100 grams of the product. Red indicates high amounts, amber is medium and green is low.”