Food for Thought! Teens Will Stop Buying Junk Food if They Feel They\'re Being Manipulated

An easy way to stop teens from buying junk food is to tell them they’re being manipulated.????The reason is simple.????They hate being controlled by adults.????Take it from new research out of the University of Chicago.????One study separated 536 eighth graders at a Texas middle school into 2 groups between 2014 and 2016.????One group read a damaging article on how food companies are manipulative marketers and try to get kids hooked on junk food.????The story also talked about misleading labels and trying to get lower-income families to buy junk food.????The second group read about healthy eating.????Kids who read the article dogging food companies for being manipulative chose fewer junk food snacks and drank water the next day.????The next study followed a group of 362 eighth grade students in 2017 and found when they learned how junk food brands target kids, the students made healthier choices for the rest of the school year – a full three months!????The strategy really worked for the boys.????They cut their junk food intake down 31% more than the group that read stuff about healthy eating.????The idea is that teens hate being controlled by adults, so when they learned about the sneaky ways junk food companies try to get kids hooked, they were triggered to make a change.????Some more food for thought, 21% of teens in the U.S. are obese.????That’s up from 5% in 1980, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.????If the goal is to stop teens from buying junk food, feed them the facts and they’ll eat them up!