Healthier Menu Options Lead To Less Healthy Choices

By Margaret Hartmann | April 6, 2009 | 7:20pm

Fast food restaurants added salad to their menus in recent years to make their food seem healthier, but according to new research having salad on the menu only makes you more likely to order fries.

In a study that will be published in the Journal of Consumer Research, college students were given two different menus. One had French fries, chicken nuggets, and a baked potato, and the other had the same items plus a salad. The french fries, which were seen as the least healthy item, were three times as popular with students ordering from the menu that had salad as with the other group. “When you consider the healthy option, you say, well, I could have that option,” said researcher Keith Wilcox. “That lowers your guard, leading to self-indulgent behavior.” [NY Times]