Exploring culinary diversity to enhance Mediterranean diet adherence: A randomized controlled trial.

We Investigated how promoting diverse, healthy food options affects long-term dietary choices. We hypothesized that encouraging exploration of nutritious plant-based foods would lead to lasting improvements in diet. Participants (N = 211) were randomly assigned into two groups for a 6-week intervention: The fixed menu group was given the same large menu every week, while the changing menu group received a new small menu each week. At the end of the intervention both groups were exposed to the same menu suggestions. Food diversity evaluation was based on weekly reports collected during the intervention. Self-reported adherence to Mediterranean diet components was assessed using the I-MEDAS screener. The proportion of plant-based foods in participants' diets was estimated using a 0-100% scale based on self-report. Both items were evaluated using online questionnaires given to participants at baseline, at the end of the intervention, as well as three and six months after the intervention concluded. Results mean(SD) demonstrated that participants in fixed menu group explored a significantly wider array of items 26.33(11.64) than those in the changing menus group [19.79(10.29), t(202) = 4.25, p < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.60]. A repeated measures analysis of covariance rmANCOVA revealed that short-term increase in I-MEDAS and PBD score were noted in both groups; however, only participants with the fixed menu sustained this increase at months follow-up [diff = 1.50, t(132) = 4.50, p < 0.001 Our findings suggest that manipulating the rate of exposure to food suggestions may affect overall dietary variety. It seems that early presentation with options may increase overall dietary variety and may even support longer-term habits. This study contributes to developing effective interventions and highlights the challenge of promoting exploratory behavior in nutrition.

Don't Give-Up: Why some intervention schemes encourage suboptimal behavior.

Many social challenges stem from individuals' tendency to prefer immediately rewarding but suboptimal behaviors ("Give-Up" options) over more costly endeavors that yield much better outcomes in the long run ("Try" options). For example, many people forgo the long-term benefits of formal education, healthy diets, learning new technologies, and even finding true love. This paper examines various incentivization programs that combine external rewards and punishments to discourage such counterproductive behaviors, which often result in only temporary behavioral change. Our findings suggest that some interventions' limited impact may be due to their focus on only shifting behaviors from "Give-Up" (e.g., dropping out of college, avoiding the gym) to "Try" (e.g., attending college, exercising regularly), without promoting sufficient exploration of these "Try" options. Yet exploration of the long-term benefits of "Trying" may be crucial to increase the chances of long-term learning and commitment. Using a simplified abstraction of this dilemma, our results show a high tendency to choose "Give-Up" options prior to intervention. Examination of four different incentivization strategies suggests that only rewarding exploration of new "Try" options is a straightforward strategy to increase exploration and optimal choice. Punishing both the selection of "Give-Up" options and the choice to exploit suboptimal "Try" options produced similar results. Other common guidance strategies were less effective, as these strategies simply tended to replace one suboptimal behavior with another. Surprisingly, punishments seemed to be a relatively more successful incentive than rewards. We discuss how these insights can help guide policy aiming to improve long-term outcomes through incentivization.

Promoting Healthy Eating Behaviors by Incentivizing Exploration of Healthy Alternatives.

Incentive-based intervention programs aimed at promoting healthy eating behaviors usually focus on incentivizing repeating the desired behavior. Unfortunately, even when effective, these interventions are often short-lived and do not lead to a lasting behavioral change. We present a new type of intervention program focused on incentivizing exploration of new healthy alternatives rather than incentivizing repeated healthy behaviors. This intervention aims to help participants find long-lasting "personal treasures" -new foods that are both healthy and tasty for them. Our field study included a final sample of 48 students with low or medium daily consumption of fresh salads. Participants in the control group received a fixed payment for completing the program, while the participants in the incentivized exploration group received a lower fixed fee for completing the task and a bonus for each new salad they tried. Results show that participants in the incentivized exploration group reported eating more salads even 1 year after the program ended compared to the participants in the control group. Though preliminary, our results paint a promising picture for the successful application of incentivizing exploration interventions to promote healthy lifestyle.

Magazine coverage of child sexual abuse, 1992-2004.

This article analyzes trends in the coverage of child sexual abuse in popular magazines since the early 1990s. The article employs systematic analysis to identify and analyze articles in four popular magazines. Articles are analyzed by subject, length, and publication. The results affirm established theories of newsworthiness related to the coverage of specific stories over time. However, interest in the subject waned in the past 10 years, with the brief and dramatic exception of coverage connected to the Catholic Church in 2002. The findings demonstrate systematic differences between the slants of the four magazines studied. The findings also suggest that child abuse professionals could improve the quality of coverage by agreeing to interviews in connection with articles about childhood sexual abuse.