RESEARCH presented this week at the European Congress on Obesity has found that promoting lower-calorie options on fast food delivery apps could help users select healthier options.
While it seems obvious, a study involving randomised trials involving more than 23,000 UK adults showed that simply presenting healthier items more prominently reduced the excess calorie content of orders by up to 15%.
Lead researcher, Dr Filippo Bianchi, said about 25 million British adults use delivery apps like UberEats, JustEat and Deliveroo on a regular basis.
"Our findings suggest that simple interventions could help people select lower-calorie options on delivery apps without the need to remove less healthy options," he said.
"This doesn't mean that we always have to swap pizza for a green salad - even initiatives that make it easy to make small changes to what we eat could help to slowly reduce obesity, if delivered at scale."
The trial, undertaken using a simulated delivery app, tested several interventions including highlighting smaller portion sizes and lower calorie products.
Bianchi noted that analyses of major UK restaurant chains found that just 9% of dishes contained less than 600 cals per meal, while about half of the items were at least 1,000 cals or more, equating to around 50% of an adult's daily recommended energy intake.
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