National Journal had an interesting article about how you can motivate people to be more healthy. It is commonly known that soda contains a great deal of added sugar. It is also known that it isn't really healthy. Unfortunately, most people don't respond to the standard pitches about the amount of sugar contained in a soda. One study decided to take a different tack.
Instead of calorie counts or sugar amounts, it also listed how much exercise it would take to work off a single bottle of soda.
Here's the conclusion of the article:
"Our results showed that providing information in the form of miles of walking to burn off a 20 ounce bottle of soda or fruit juice had a modest, but significant, effect on reducing the number of calories compared with other relative information in the form of minutes of running or teaspoons of sugar," the researchers state in their conclusion. The teens made significantly fewer soda and sports-drink purchases, more water purchases, and more purchases that didn't include any beverage at all. So the kids were either making a healthier decision, or opting out of buying a soda when they saw the sign.
While the walking sign was most effective, across all the interventions, average calories purchased fell from 149 calories during the baseline period to 121 calories during the period the signs were posted. And the effect persisted to a significant degree even six weeks after the signs were removed from the stores.
Numbers without context are just that—numbers. To show how those numbers translate into our lives is an entirely different task, but potentially much more useful.
Here is the link to the full article: One Simple Trick to Get Teens to Drink Less Soda - NationalJournal.com
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