Scientists, public health advocates, corporations and schools are all desperately seeking ways to improve diets, while traditional public health campaigns, oftenspecialising in telling people what they should do, routinely fail to alter behaviour. Meanwhile, Google has been implementing its own strategy to encourage its staff to make healthier choices. Over the past five years, the company has taken a typically Google-ish approach to the food it serves to create a real-world test of how to nudge people to make healthier meal choices.
The campaign hasn’t involved changing the food itself, but how it’s presented. Google’s tactics include limiting portion sizes for meat and desserts and redesigning its premises to lead its “users” to choose water and fruit over soda and M&M’s. The goal, says Michiel Bakker, Google’s director of global workplace programs, is to make the healthy choice the easy choice and the preferred one. An approach we hope to see in many more offices in the future. Read more here
Using behaviour science to nudge diners is one of the methods we embrace at Food Made Good – so get in touch with us for bespoke workshops that can gently encourage healthier and more sustainable choices to help both your staff and your customers make that shift.
