Online shopping may help you eat more healthily


According to the findings of a recent research, basic online shopping interventions can help customers buy healthier food products.

The study advances that if an e-commerce platform alters the default order in which foods are shown on the screen, this would help customers make healthier choices when buying online. For example, items with low calories or offering substitutes lower in saturated fat should be displayed first. The lead author of the study, Dimitrios Koutoukidis, asserts, “Finding effective ways of lowering the saturated fat in our shopping baskets, such as from meat, cheese, or desserts, may translate to eating less of it, which could help lower our risk for heart disease”.

As part of the study, 1088 grocery shoppers in the UK were analysed using an experimental online supermarket that has been specifically designed for this study. Participants were asked to select ten ‘everyday’ products that they would want to eat from a pre-specified shopping list. They were divided into different groups. Some of them accessed food based on the environmental-level control while others did not. The study found out that the former chose items with less saturated fat. It also advanced that the total cost of both groups’ shopping basket did not differ significantly.


E-commerce platforms may help you eat more healthily

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