Healthy Food & Healthy Living by Dr. Ayala

Artificial intelligence in the service of food brands

Do we really have free will when it comes to food choices? 

When we’re at the highest level of focus and control we may feel totally in charge, but as food choices and eating are everyday habits, and are made mostly without thought, much of what we ingest isn’t really because we applied judgment or even listened our hunger cues – much of our consumption is mindless.

That’s not necessarily bad. Automation of daily activities can free your mind to pursue other important tasks.

But when the tendency to follow cues and triggers is manipulated in favor of consuming unhealthy foods it can become a problem.

End caps and eye level placement

We already know that food manufacturers use efficient marketing tricks to promote sales. These nudges could have promoted the sales of any number of foods, but since highly processed foods are profit centers for big food manufacturers – who are the powerful players in the supermarket – these are the foods that enjoy strategic placement.

Supermarkets and food outlets are carefully designed to move you about, leading you to places you wouldn’t necessarily go. The necessities aren’t concentrated in one area, which forces shoppers to cover ground even if they’re in for just bread and bananas. The necessities are occasionally shuffled around to prevent us from getting into a speedy shopping rhythm. Since most customers tend to look to the right when entering a supermarket, special offers and promotions will be at the immediate right as you enter.

And then there’s the shelf: Most shoppers are right handed, so placement on the right makes for better sales. Eye level products sell better, that’s where you’ll find what makes more money for the store. Kids’ offerings will be lower, at kids’ eye level. Displays near checkouts and end-caps attract your eye while you’re waiting for the cashier driving impulse shopping.

None of this is by chance.

And now, artificial intelligence and machine learning can apparently upgrade these methods to the next level.

A new study in Public Health Nutrition looks at the way international food companies use artificial intelligence (AI) to nudge consumers to buy more of their products. Nudges are a strategy to affect people’s behavior, they can be employed in the service of improving health (when the kitchen counter displays cut carrots and apples regularly for instance), and they can also be used to promote consumption of less healthy foods. 

The researchers included 12 leading companies, including Danone, McDonalds, Pepsico, Coca-cola, Nestle, Yum Brands etc. They read through the companies’ reports for evidence of use of AI to influence customer behavior.

The use of AI is widespread, according to the study. It’s used for social listening: Comments on social media are analyzed for trends and hone in on what customers want. Ordering algorithms and data-driven demographics make sure products are precisely stocked for each location. Weather-related preferences are also digitally analyzed.

Position of the product on menu boards is just as important as its location in the supermarket. The researchers found that many companies use AI to manipulate the visibility and significance of offerings on their menu boards. McDonald’s for instance, describes using decision technology to adjust drive-through menu boards according to weather, time of day and trends. Yum Brands uses facial recognition and manipulates the position of products on the menu according estimated age, sex and mood.

Since much of food ordering is done on screens, companies use AI and other emerging tech to increase sales when customers are on their website or app. They deploy recommendation algorithms offering add-on suggestions, and use bots and voice assistants to augment sales.

Ads and products are targeted based on data that includes location and other information collected through cookies.

Realizing the promise of big data?

Is AI in the hands of food companies of concern?

The authors suggest that by altering the availability, position, functionality and presentation of their offerings companies ultimately increase consumption, and since what these companies sell is predominantly unhealthy food, an increase in consumption affects the population’s diet negatively. McDonalds gains are public health losses.

Using big data to create personalized options, and the ability to to test multiple versions of ads varying copy, images and placement, brings nudging to the next level, and resisting the lure of tempting food becomes even harder. The authors raise another concern: “data can be used to target unhealthy food and beverage marketing to certain populations, with the potential to exacerbate existing disparities in diets and health. Data related to engagement with unhealthy food marketing could also potentially be used to make inferences about long-term health risks, which could then be applied in insurance, financial services, differential pricing or other discriminatory applications.”

Big food often argues that they’re just giving people what they want. Data driven products indeed give the food industry the ability to appeal to our craving for sugar, fat, salt, convenience, availability, and low price. What most people are tempted to do is munch junk food sitting on a couch in front of a screen. 

Employing ever more sophisticated ways to make us do what’s easy and tempting is hardly what big data promised to add to mankind.

Dr. Ayala

The foods that keep your brain young

As lifespan expands and many more people live into their 80s and 90s a big concern is cognitive decline later in life. Cognitive decline is related to several disease processes and the risk of intellectual deterioration has been associated with many lifestyle factors, including poor diet, obesity and sedentary lifestyle. 

On the other hand, healthy diets such as the Mediterranean diet are associated with lower rates of Alzheimer's disease and cognitive decline. A plant-rich diet could affect brain health directly, as plant polyphenols do cross into the brain, where they can act as antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents, reducing harmful processes that lead to brain cell dysfunction and loss. 

These are consistent associations, but a new 18 month study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, set out to test this link with an interventional clinical trial. The study was completed by 224 people who had either abdominal obesity (excess fat around the waistline) or abnormal lipid profiles (high cholesterol or triglycerides), and was conducted at a remote workplace, the nuclear facility in Dimona, Israel, in which lunch and exercise were provided and monitored onsite.

Mediterranean plus

The volunteers were randomly assigned to one of three calorie restricted diets: A healthy dietary guidelines group receiving standard nutrition counseling, a Mediterranean diet group advised to follow a diet rich in veggies, with chicken and fish replacing part of the red meat and supplanted with about an ounce of walnuts daily, and a Green Mediterranean diet group, that in addition to the Mediterranean diet instructions also were instructed to avoid processed and red meat, to eat more plant-based foods and to drink 3-4 cups of green tea and about 3 ounces of Mankai (Wolffia globosa, an aquatic plant rich in polyphenols, protein, iron and B12) as a dinner replacement. All three groups also had a free gym membership and received similar physical activity guidance. 

Brain volume diminishes over time, a change apparent in brain imaging, and the brains of the participants were followed by MRIs before and after the intervention. One area of the brain is of special interest, the hippocampus, a brain area is involved with learning and memory. The hippocampus is located deep in the temporal lobe, and loss of volume there is considered a sensitive marker of brain decline, even before symptoms appear. 

And the results: After 18 months brain atrophy was associated with the age of the participants, with atrophy accelerated among those over 50 years of age. The rate of atrophy was however attenuated in both of the Mediterranean diet groups, and especially in the Green Mediterranean diet group. The same protective effect was also seen in the younger volunteers. 

Avoidance of red and processed meat, and consumption of walnuts and of “green” dietary components (Mankai and green tea) were associated with less loss of brain volume in the hippocampus. The researchers also saw that improvements in glucose tolerance, body weight and blood pressure with the ascribed diet correlated with less brain loss on MRIs. Moreover, urinary excretion of polyphenols, reflecting intake of plant foods, were also correlated with brain volume retention.

Do we have to eat walnuts?

This intervention – of 18 months – is shorter than a 4 year intervention study in 334 older people that showed improved cognition assessed by neuropsychological testing with a Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil and nuts. In this study, which showed a diet-brain volume correlation, neuropsychological testing didn’t measure differences between the three groups. These perhaps take more time to manifest.

Are these specific plant foods important? The walnuts and Mankai that were given to the participants were chosen because they’re rich in polyphenols, but they’re more an example of the type of food pattern that helps to maintain a healthy brain than an specific recipe: “we cannot claim an effect of specific foods or nutrients,” say the authors.

The list of polyphenol-rich foods is extensive, and includes berries, herbs and spices, vegetables such as broccoli, cocoa, coffee and tea. Most plant foods contain many types of polyphenols, and the level of content varies by the way the plant is grown, by the way the food is prepared, and many other factors. Polyphenol absorption also varies. 

This is why sensible diet recommendations are to eat a varied diet centered on plant based foods. You don't need to hunt exotic superfoods as there are many nutritiously rich foods that grow locally and are commonly available.

These plant foods are important for cardiovascular health, for protection from inflammation, diabetes and cancer, and may also stave off brain decline.

Dr. Ayala