Subtle cues help obese shoppers skip unhealthy choices

Subtle hints may help nudge people toward making healthier food choices at the grocery store, new findings suggest. Obese people heading into a store who were given a recipe flyer with a few health-related words spent less than one-third the amount on unhealthy snacks as those given the same flyer with unrelated wording, Dutch researchers found. And the flyer had an effect even if people weren't thinking about it as they shopped. "Subtle cues can have a strong impact on our behavior, without us noticing. Fortunately, this is true not only for tempting food that surrounds us and makes self-control difficult - it also works for subtle cues that remind us of our health and dieting goals," Esther K. Papies of Utrecht University in The Netherlands told Reuters Health in an email. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_140457.html