Red light, green light may take on a new meaning for some looking to change their daily eating habits.
A new study suggests the "traffic light" method to labeling food helped participant to transition into better choices at the Massachusetts General Hospital's cafeteria.
According to CNN, "green light" meant the food was a healthy choice, a "yellow light" meant they were a little less healthy and a "red light" was placed on unhealthy foods. Healthy foods were spread out around the cafeteria while "red light" items were placed "below eye-level."
The findings were published on Tuesday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine:
The proportion of sales of red items decreased from 24 percent at baseline to 20 percent at 24 months, and green sales increased from 41 percent to 46 percent. Red beverages decreased from 26 percent of beverage sales at baseline to 17 percent at 24 months; green beverages increased from 52 percent to 60 percent. Similar patterns were observed for the cohort of employees, with the largest change for red beverages (23 perecent-14 percent).
"A traffic-light and choice architecture cafeteria intervention resulted in sustained healthier choices over 2 years, suggesting that food environment interventions can promote longterm changes in population eating behaviors," researchers wrote.
However, it is unclear if the "traffic light" labeling or the placement of the "red light" foods being away from eye level that contributed to the changes. Lead study author Dr. Anne Thorndike told CNN categorizing foods is a great way to teach kids about healthy eating habits.
"Families could utilize this concept by categorizing foods in the household as 'green' or red,'" Thorndike said. "For example, you could have a 'green' snack drawer or shelf on the refrigerator that the kids could freely choose from, and you could designate a 'red' drawer in which the kids would need to ask permission before taking a snack."
