From TikTok hypes to green challenges: This is how we motivate young people to make healthy choices
This week, columnist Puck van Holsteijn asks: how do you entice young people to make healthier choices in a world full of unhealthy temptations?
Published on November 16, 2024
As editor-in-chief, Aafke is ultimately responsible for the content of our platform, but she also likes to get into the pen herself. She is also responsible for the content of our events. She likes nothing better than explaining complicated things in an accessible way and is fond of telling the story of the people behind the technology.
It's absurd how much our environment influences our food. Everywhere you look, we're surrounded by unhealthy temptations: from supermarkets where 80% of the offerings and promotions don't fit into the Schijf van Vijf (The Wheel of Five; a guideline for healthy food in the Netherlands) and (lurking) advertising on social media influence young children and adolescents. For young people, navigating this food jungle is all the more difficult.
And yet the figures do not lie: Research by GGD Haaglanden shows that only 45% of young people in that region eat vegetables daily, and almost a quarter say they are (seriously) overweight. This is even higher among young people with an intermediate vocational education, at nearly 33%. So the question on everyone's lips, or at least on mine, is: How do you entice young people to make healthier choices in a world whole of unhealthy temptations?
The way to get young people moving
At World Horti Center and HortiHeroes, we believe the answer lies with young people. With the Food Boost Challenge, we challenge them to develop creative and practical solutions to make healthy food more attractive. The government and corporations can tell us that young people should eat more nutritious, plant-based foods and what that should look like, but today's generation is more critical and quicker than ever.
Social media, and certainly TikTok, plays a significant role in this. This is where new trends and hypes emerge. Sometimes, "we" get lucky; for. For example, earlier this year, the cucumber was one of these hypes, which even caused the product to sell out in Iceland. So you would think it would be easy to promote healthy products, but nothing could be further from the truth. Do they like the product, idea, or person? Then it gets "canceled" en masse.
Whether it's developing a healthy snack for the cinema or at school or a new presentation format that makes vegetables more appealing in the supermarket, we challenge young people to positively influence their eating environment so that they more easily choose healthy, plant-based options.
The great thing is that this challenge goes far beyond competition. We mentor students with the expertise of top companies in the industry, such as Hak, Magioni, Bites We Love, and Aldi. This collaboration allows them to turn their ideas into concrete solutions, inspiring others and directly contributing to a healthy future. Even though young people are influenced in all sorts of ways by influencers with energy drinks, pistachio chocolate bars, and compounds, if you present them with the facts, they know this is not the right way to go. They need a little push in the right direction.
New columnist Puck van Holsteijn: 'Horticulture in NL can make huge impact on world food system'
Starting tomorrow, Puck van Holsteijn, director of World Horti Center and HortiHeroes, will give you a peek into the world of horticulture every six weeks.
The Health theme square: where the vision comes to life
The Food Boost Challenge is the first project co-launched with World Horti Center's newest 'Health' theme square. This square focuses on healthy people, a healthy living environment, and a healthy planet. We aim to dialogue with a broad target group from our clubhouse and to set up innovative (research) projects together. The strength lies in the broad target group; we look beyond the horticultural sector and hope to connect with retailers, food processors, (top) athletes, and, for example, general practitioners.
The Health Theme Square is not a showroom but an incubator of new insights and technologies that can make a differ contributed once in creating a healthier society. By working together and looking across sectors, we are making a difference in health and nutrition.
Our vision: structural change for health and sustainability
These initiatives are unique because they go beyond a snapshot in time. The Health Theme Square and the Food Boost Challenge are part of a larger vision to embed health and sustainability into our daily lives and make young people aware that large companies are using marketing to persuade them to buy mostly unhealthy products. By working with young people and taking their ideas seriously, we make a difference and achieve more conscious and critical attitudes about what we all put in our mouths, why, and what it does to our bodies!