Better eating habits through gaming

by Ross Miller { Oct 2nd 2006 at 3:15PM }

Can gaming teach us healthier ways to eat? Nonsense! A recent Electronic Arts study concluded that commercial games can be effective teaching tools in the classroom. Last week, researchers at the University of Sydney found that automated dietary advice, similar to Amazon recommendations, reduced the amount of saturated fats in the goods purchased by the participants.

The two studies are not necessarily mutually exclusive: imagine a 3D platformer where your enemies all shared a common thread of containing copious amounts of high fructose corn syrup. Would you subconscious start avoiding foods that contain HFCS, or at least check the nutrition labels?

Yoshi's Fruit Cake? Veggie Burger Time? Scrumdiddly-umptious.

See Also:
W. Virginia to put DDR in all 765 public schools
Parent prefers kid dabbling in coke over playing video games

Read - New tool helps online shoppers buy lower-fat food [Reuters, via Geek.com]
Read - Video games have 'role in school' [BBC News]

Tags: burger time, BurgerTime, culinary, food, health

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Steve @ Oct 2nd 2006 3:23PM

There was an old 2D platformer on the SNES called "Captain Novolin" that shared this idea. It was to teach kids with diabetes how to control their diets. At the beginning of each level, you are told what your proper menu is for the next meal, then you proceed through the level collecting the components of your meal and avoiding your sugary enemies (donuts, cake, soda). It was probably one of the worst games I've ever played.

pandlcg @ Oct 2nd 2006 3:32PM

Just read up on Captain Novolin...sounds awful. There isnt even an attack. Glad i never heard of it when i was young.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Novolin

32_Footsteps @ Oct 2nd 2006 3:38PM

Captain Novolin 2: the Revenge of High Fructose Corn Syrup... yeah, can't wait to play that.

Pleading the Fifth always needs fresh meat.

White Rose Duelist @ Oct 2nd 2006 4:25PM

Does that mean Pac-Man is causing obesity in addition to being 62% violent?

Mullinator @ Oct 2nd 2006 4:30PM

I remember some old shareware game (had vikings in it) for my PC way way back. It had nothing to do with eating healthy but one of the foods you could eat for restoring your health were these apples. I don't know why but the sound that your guy made each time he ate one ALWAYS made me want an apple. It was weird and healthy all in one.

Judd @ Oct 2nd 2006 4:56PM

I'm fasting today and you need to put in an article about eating? Aaargh!

OtakuCODE @ Oct 2nd 2006 5:53PM

Nobody here is going to believe me. I don't care, I swear what I am writing is true.

Lost in Blue got me to eat vegetables. I don't usually go for vegetables. I mean, they're fine when they are complementing something with, say, loads of meat, or they're drenched in cheese, but by themselves they left me flat.

Until Lost in Blue.

Yes, in Lost in Blue you control your characters and they eat fish, coconuts, fish, various plants, fish, deer, fish, and more fish. But the SOUND made when you eat these things... it stimulated something in me. It drove me to the grocery store like pica drives kids to eat dirt. I had to have crunchy vegetables. Celery. Carrots. Anything that looked like it would crunch. And then I played the game and ate carrots while my character in Lost in Blue munched on the crunchiest coconut I've ever heard. And it was GOOD.

So, if we extrapolate this out... videogames, as everyone with half a freaking brain knows, do not impart lasting concepts to their players. People playing a game where you kill hookers do not kill hookers, and people playing a game where you don't eat twinkies still end up as fatasses with no friends who smell like old milk. If you want a game to actually affect someone, you need to have intimate knowledge of them personally and tailor it just for them. For me, you'd have to know that crunchy sound is the #1 best thing about vegetables and continued exposure to it drives me to eat veggies like a brainwashed hippie.

But hey, realistic thinking like that never got anyone a grant from the government, did it?