Using Nudging to Incentivize Vegetable and Legume Consumption in Children Diet: a Case Study to promote Healthier Eating Habits

Promoting healthy eating habits in children is critical for their long-term health, particularly in increasing their intake of vegetables and legumes, which are often under-consumed among young populations. Nudging-based strategies emerged as an effective method for shaping healthier eating behaviors and studies indicate that nudges can significantly increase vegetable and legume consumption among children by leveraging social norms, and the attractiveness of food presentation. Overall, the preliminary results suggest that the use of nonmonetary incentives such as comics and visual cues in school canteens, can be successful in increasing children's vegetable consumption rates and can be of help in the design of nutrition and health policies aimed at improving the dietary behavior of children and potentially reducing childhood obesity.