Colourful = healthy? Exploring meal colour variety and its relation to food consumption

Visual properties of food including colour are important cues when deciding what and how much to eat. Colour variety might be an intuitive cue for healthy food choices. In order to explore a colourful equals healthy association, the present study examined 486 real-life meal choices recorded by 108 participants. Participants recorded their lunch meals via mobile visual food recording, indicated the perceived meal colour variety, and added a short meal description using smartphone based ecological momentary assessment. All visual food records and description were coded by trained experts according to seven main food groups (fruit, vegetables, grains and starches, protein sources, dairy, fried foods, sugary foods). Supporting the colourful equals healthy association, increased perceived meal colour variety was related to an increased intake of vegetables and a decreased intake of sugary foods. Hence, eating colourfully seems to be a promising avenue for promoting a more intuitive but also healthy food choice strategy in consumers.