Can mobile apps change how we eat?

From eco-score apps to immersive virtual supermarkets, researchers explore whether technology can nudge people toward healthier and more sustainable eating habits, and why stronger, longer-term evidence is still urgently needed.

Study: Digital Tools for the Promotion of Healthy and Sustainable Eating Behaviors in the General Population: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Image credit: KucherAV/Shutterstock.com

A recent systematic review published in Nutrients examined whether digital technologies effectively promote healthier and more sustainable eating habits in the general population. The review followed PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines and synthesized evidence from 16 empirical studies.

Importance of Sustainable Diets

A proper food system is not only critical for public health but also for environmental sustainability. Diets high in animal-based and ultra-processed foods increase the risk of chronic illness and contribute to environmental problems, including higher greenhouse gas emissions and resource use.

The One Health approach emphasizes that human, animal, and ecosystem health are closely connected, making it essential for sustainable food systems. This framework highlights how dietary choices affect public health, the environment, and animal welfare. Shifting towards plant-based and flexitarian diets can significantly improve health outcomes, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce harm to animals.

Promoting sustainable eating habits can improve both environmental outcomes and personal health, but it requires a holistic perspective. Not all sustainability-focused diets are healthy, especially if they are overly restrictive or unbalanced. Guidelines emphasize that healthy, sustainable diets should provide adequate nutrition, minimize environmental impact, and support overall well-being. The authors also highlight a bidirectional relationship between diet and mental health, noting that poor diet quality can worsen psychological outcomes, while certain mental health conditions may contribute to dysfunctional and environmentally harmful eating behaviors.

Adopting healthy, sustainable eating habits can be challenging due to cognitive, social, and cultural barriers. These include emotional attachment to traditional diets, lack of environmental concern, and practical issues such as limited availability or convenience of sustainable food choices.

Review Characteristics

To date, the impact of digital technologies on sustainable and healthy eating habits has not been thoroughly studied. This systematic narrative review evaluates digital technologies for promoting healthy and sustainable dietary behaviors, with emphasis on categorizing psychological factors and behavioral strategies within digital interventions. Researchers obtained relevant literature from PsycInfo, PsycArticles, PubMed, and ProQuest.

The current review included 16 studies, of which 56 % were randomized controlled trials, and 50 % were non-controlled designs. Only 31 % included follow-up assessments that typically lasted 1–4 weeks, and no study included long-term follow-up beyond 3 months. The sample sizes in the research varied significantly, with mobile app–based studies more often including larger samples and follow-up assessments compared to many virtual reality studies. Interestingly, most participants were healthy, non-vegetarian adults, and 31 % were university students. Approximately 94 % of the studied articles comprised mixed-gender samples; a few included unspecified genders or focused only on women.

According to the methodologies used, around 69 % of studies employed ad hoc questionnaires or interviews to assess outcomes, with only one referencing the original Theory of Planned Behavior Questionnaire. Furthermore, some studies used additional tools, such as food diaries or semi-structured interviews, and 29 % used standardized psychometric scales. Several mobile app studies relied partly on qualitative or descriptive data, limiting the strength of statistical inferences.

It should be noted that research quality varied: 44 % of studies were rated strong, 25 % moderate, and 31 % weak. Weaknesses mainly resulted from short or absent follow-up, small sample sizes, and risk of bias. More than 50 % of research failed to control for confounding variables. The authors also note that, in several cases, psychological and behavioral strategies had to be inferred by the reviewers rather than explicitly stated by study authors, introducing potential subjectivity into the categorization process.

The literature synthesis was challenged by inconsistent terminology for “sustainable diets” and a tendency for studies to focus on isolated aspects, such as meat reduction and waste minimization, rather than the multidimensional nature of sustainable eating.

Impact of Digital Interventions on Sustainable Dietary Behaviors

The current study included 16 studies that targeted interventions supporting both individual health and environmental sustainability. Broad inclusion criteria reflected the field’s novelty, leading to heterogeneity in study designs, sample sizes, and settings and precluding meta-analysis. Despite this, evidence indicates that digital tools employing diverse psychological and behavioral strategies can produce promising short-term improvements in dietary practices, though effect sizes varied and were inconsistently reported across studies.

Technology offered innovative ways to help people adopt healthier and more sustainable eating habits. Tools such as smartphone apps, web platforms, and VR can encourage positive change by making information more accessible and engaging. Many technologies use psychological techniques such as gamification and nudging to support conscious, sustainable choices. Research areas such as Design for Sustainable Behavior and theories, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior, also guide the development of effective digital interventions.

Smartphone apps and VR platforms were most frequently employed and were associated with short-term positive effects, particularly in reducing red and processed meat intake, increasing plant-based food choices, and enhancing food-related awareness and decision-making. However, the magnitude and durability of these effects remain uncertain due to short follow-up periods and methodological variability.

Self-monitoring features, present mainly in smartphone apps and messaging interventions, enabled tracking dietary behavior and progress toward personal goals, often within systems that provided reminders and feedback. VR and web platforms often target self-efficacy and response efficacy, enhancing users’ confidence in making sustainable choices through immersive feedback and real-time visualization of health or environmental impacts.

The review also systematically categorized psychological factors and behavioral strategies used in digital interventions. Awareness was the most frequently targeted construct, often operationalized through educational content, gamification, or interactive experiences to enhance knowledge of sustainable practices and environmental impact.

Digital tools helped people make decisions through features such as eco-scores, feedback, and motivational messages. Techniques to influence emotions, such as making users feel pride or regret, were used less often but can also encourage sustainable choices. Digital technologies and interactive platforms are also valuable in clinical psychology, where they support the treatment and prevention of eating disorders and help manage these conditions, although the present review focused specifically on interventions in the general population rather than clinical samples.

Digital Intervention Shows Promise in Promoting Sustainable Diet

The current review highlighted that digital tools, such as smartphone apps and VR, can help people make more sustainable food choices, especially when they include feedback, engaging content, and step-by-step guidance. However, the authors emphasize that most evidence reflects short-term behavioral shifts rather than sustained change. Adding design elements that encourage sustainable behavior may improve results, but more research is needed to determine whether these changes persist over time.

The authors further note that digital interventions often rely on individual-level prompts and nudges, raising questions about their long-term transformative impact compared to broader systemic or community-based approaches.

Overall, while digital technologies show potential as scalable tools to promote healthier and more sustainable diets, the evidence base remains methodologically heterogeneous and relatively immature, underscoring the need for more rigorous, longitudinal, theory-driven, and better standardized research to clarify long-term effectiveness and comparative impact across technologies.

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This article was originally published on news-medical