Making Healthy Eating Pleasurable for Children: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda
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Hwang, Euejung
Phillips, Megan
Makkar, Marian
Kemper, Joya
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Elsevier
Abstract
Childhood obesity remains a major global public health challenge. Research demonstrates that children's pleasurable food experiences may orient children toward unhealthy options unless children learn, early and consistently, to associate pleasure with healthy foods. This review synthesizes interventions designed to link pleasure with healthy eating and evaluate how these approaches can be strengthened or extended. We conduct a systematic literature review of 52 articles and applied the antecedents-decisions-outcomes (ADO) and theories-contexts-and methods (TCM) frameworks to organize existing knowledge and build understanding. We distinguish four antecedents of pleasurable eating experiences: sensory, interpersonal, psychosocial, and physiological. These antecedents influence six key decisions, including healthy food choice, healthy food consumption, healthy and unhealthy food acceptance or avoidance, gustatory interference, and responses to marketing stimuli. We also identify three outcomes: subjective well-being, objective well-being, and childhood obesity prevention. The review reveals limited theoretical development across the field, constraining cumulative knowledge building. Overall, the review offers comprehensive insight into successful interventions for healthy pleasurable eating for children and provides extensive future research directions.
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32 Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, 3210 Nutrition and Dietetics, Prevention, Nutrition, Obesity, Clinical Research, Health Disparities, Health Disparities and Racial or Ethnic Minority Health Research, Childhood Obesity, Pediatric Research Initiative, Behavioral and Social Science, Stroke, Metabolic and endocrine, Cardiovascular, 0908 Food Sciences, 1505 Marketing, Food Science, 3006 Food sciences, 3210 Nutrition and dietetics, 3506 Marketing
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Food Quality and Preference, ISSN: 0950-3293 (Print); 1873-6343 (Online), Elsevier, 145, 106028-106028. doi: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2026.106028
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Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0
© 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
© 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0