How food delivery apps want to control your diet

We live in a world where algorithms and influencers rule the food menu, steering us toward nutritious and not-so-healthy options. Welcome to the intriguing world of digital food environments, where the battle for our plates and health unfolds.

Social media platforms, online grocery stores, and food delivery apps are the battlegrounds where food companies vie for our attention, stomachs, loyalty, and money. You've probably experienced it yourself – a mouth-watering food picture suddenly appears on your feed, and before you know it, you're reaching for a food delivery app.

Beyond the allure of enticing digital food ads lies a pressing concern: the impact on public health. Noncommunicable diseases have emerged as a global health crisis, with our 21st Century unhealthy diets being more than partly to blame. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other noncommunicable diseases, are rampant, affecting more than 1.9 billion adults and increasing numbers of children worldwide. Moreover, our food systems' environmental impact extends to climate change, biodiversity loss, and depletion of natural resources, adding further weight to the digital food challenge.

The rise and spread of noncommunicable diseases are partly because of our unhealthy diets but also the increasing amount of time we spend sitting in front of a screen to which we’re exposed to a surge in food marketing through digital platforms. From cleverly placed ads on Instagram to eye-catching promos on food delivery apps, our digital lives are nudging us toward specific food choices. Who is in control of what we eat? It’s time to better understand the unexpected ways digital food environments shape our eating habits and its impact on our wellbeing.
 

Digital food environments have several obvious drawbacks. The demand and supply of online food delivery services continues to increase. Advertising and aggregator online food delivery platforms, such as Uber Eats, have become highly personalised and targeted, making it nearly impossible for us to avoid being targeted by algorithms that know when we are hungry before we do.

Social media and digital marketing wield significant influence, often promoting unhealthy snacks and diets, which leaves consumers confused and overwhelmed. Nevertheless, we have the power to leverage these platforms for our health benefit, to work in our favour.

Though social media is often used to promote commercial interests, we could use those same platforms to foster health promotion, and in a way that overcomes accessibility barriers such as limited access to traditional media, language barriers, and lack of community outreach and to reach vast audiences. Imagine if we are as good and persistent, even opportunistic, at promoting the many virtues of, say, carrots or chickpeas, as McDonald's was with their quarter pounder with cheese?

Common sense tells us, and research confirms, health experts (eg dietitians and nutritionists) on social media can effectively promote healthier and more plant-based diets. We could use the digital food world for health promotion programmes especially with young people, designing evidence-based, non-diet focused interventions that promote healthier ways to eat, as well as empower body image positivity and support for those who are struggling.

To facilitate enduring changes in digital food environments, we need to adopt a comprehensive food systems approach, one that looks at the bigger picture and considers the entire supply chain. One that ensures delivery platforms adhere to regulations, such as providing transparent nutritional information, rules around advertising, ongoing discussions, and debates on concerns such as data privacy, cybersecurity, and the use of artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies in the food industry.

As our food neighbourhoods expand in the virtual realm, we must develop policies and strategies to promote healthy eating and wellbeing in the digital realm – from regulating food delivery platforms to learning from their tactics – and to promote better, healthier eating.

As we begin to reshape our digital food landscapes, and they begin to reshape our behaviour and influence what we eat, we must remember that each click, tap, or scroll can influence our health in a bad way – but also a good way. We are what we eat – and we can exploit the digital food environment to support public health nutrition strategies and policies, for the collective rather than commercial good.

Dr Rajshri Roy will be giving a free talk, From clicks to craving: how the digital food environment shapes what we eat, at Raising the Bar, August 29, 8pm.