Researchers from the University at Buffalo have shown that preloading Instacart online grocery carts with healthy ingredients could be a useful tool for improving the diets of families with young children at risk of obesity.
Posted on December 3rd at Appetitethe randomized, controlled pilot study found that providing families with healthy recipes and preloading electronic grocery carts through Instacart with the ingredients needed to make those recipes resulted in families making purchases that were significantly more nutritious compared to a group that received only the recipes. Families paid for their grocery purchases as usual and were free to change the preloaded basket ingredients if they wanted.
“The findings support the idea that healthier choices can be supported by making them easier and more automatic,” says Stephanie Anzman-Frasca, PhD, corresponding author on the paper and associate professor of pediatrics and director of the Child Health and Behavior Lab at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB.
Research shows that children who are overweight by age 5 are more likely to develop obesity later in life, putting them at risk for cardiovascular and other diet-related diseases.
“Since experience with food and flavors early in life can influence children’s later food preferences, eating behavior and health, it is important to make healthier choices for families with young children.”
Stephanie Anzman-Frasca, PhD, corresponding author on the paper
A “real” family shopping intervention
The study was the first time a default grocery shopping intervention for families with young children took place in a real-world scenario, where families bought the actual groceries they would eat during the four-week study. The goal was to test in a real shopping situation the impact of “optimal defaults,” the idea that default choices can be useful in guiding people toward healthy behaviors.
Anzman-Frasca and her colleagues in the Division of Behavioral Medicine have done pioneering work in behavioral medicine and nutrition, including previous research on optimal preferences. in this study, they wanted to see how pre-loaded pre-selected grocery carts would work in families with young children at risk of obesity.
Eligible families had to do at least 75% of their shopping online and one parent had to have a body mass index of at least 25, classifying them as overweight. A diverse group of 69 families participated, nearly half of whom lived on lower incomes.
All families received healthy recipes for two weeks, and a sample recipe bundle is included in the published paper. Each weekly packet included recipes for three dinners, plus a “bonus” recipe, such as a snack, that used leftover ingredients from the dinner meals. While all participating families received the recipes, half of the families had their Instacart electronic grocery carts preloaded with the ingredients to make these dishes, while the other half did not.
“When faced with a choice, most people will make the default choice unless they have a strong incentive to choose an alternative,” says Mackenzie Ferrante, PhD, co-author and assistant professor at Rutgers University, who did postdoctoral work at UB. “These days, the easy or default choice with food is rarely the healthy choice. We wanted to see what would happen if the default choice for families was the healthy choice.”
“This real-world study shows how Instacart’s technology can make it easier for families to fill their tables with healthier foods,” says Beatrice Abiero, PhD, senior manager of policy research at Instacart. “By looking at how our platform can inspire more nutritious choices, we’re seeing how online grocers can support healthier habits—without adding cost—at scale. We’ll continue to use Instacart Health tools to support research and nutrition programs that help make choosing healthy the easy choice.”
The researchers note that children between the ages of 2 and 5 are often fearful and resistant to trying new foods, which can be challenging. In this study, recipes were selected for families based on the information they provided about their family’s dietary preferences at the start of the study. The results showed that there was a significantly greater improvement in the nutritional quality of the families’ grocery shopping in the group that received the preloaded carts compared to the group that received only the recipes.
“Eye opening” to see what they spent
In both groups, family spending on groceries decreased over the course of the study. While that wasn’t the main focus of the study and more research needs to be done, the researchers say it’s possible that requiring them to fill out forms about what they bought made families more aware of the unnecessary items they were buying. Some participants noted that it was impressive to see how much they were spending.
In the future, the researchers want to expand the work to examine how preloaded e-grocery carts affect family grocery shopping over a longer period of time and the corresponding effects on nutritional intake and health. Meanwhile, Anzman-Frasca says, families can use Instacart’s Buy It Again feature to repurchase healthy ingredients they’ve enjoyed in the past, which can be used to easily load those ingredients into future shopping carts.
When this study was launched in 2023, the White House cited it as an example of how to fight food insecurity and diet-related diseases. The project was supported by Instacart and leveraged Instacart Health tools. Support from Instacart complemented an initial investment from the UB Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development. UB’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Science provided seed funding for earlier pilot research that set the stage for the current project.
Additional co-authors include Juliana Goldsmith, Adrianna Calabro, Karlie Gambino and Leonard H. Epstein, PhD, of the Jacobs School. Lucia A. Leone, PhD, and Gregory E. Wilding, PhD, of the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions. and Brianna Wallenhorst of the Independent Health Foundation.
