PROMOTING HEALTHY EATING HABITS THROUGH MONSTER APPETITE

The obesity epidemic is one of America's largest public health challenges and a growing one in the rest of the world, one that creates disparities among race, ethnicity, region and income [1, 2]. Currently, there are over 12 million obese American children and adolescents [3] and there has been an 82 percent increase of obesity in the last 20 years worldwide [4]. Intrigued by the increase in young adult and childhood obesity, many awareness movements have been initiated throughout the country including New York City mayor Bloomberg's initiative to fight obesity through reducing the sizes of sugary drinks [5], Communities Putting Prevention to Work led by the Centers for Disease Control to create environments where maintaining healthier lives are made easier [6] and the First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move movement to increase opportunities for children to become more involved in physical activities [7]. In light of efforts to combat the obesity epidemic, Monster Appetite (MA) is a game that potentially remediates some aspects of the concern by promoting awareness of the content of food typically consumed by children. In initial testing kids responded well to the fact the game was more entertaining rather than preachy. The reverse factor (i.e., consuming high caloric content food items to make one's monster avatar fatter) enables them to think higher numbers, so when the nutritional aspect is taught to the students what their target caloric daily intake should be, they become more aware of the incredibly high numbers some foods have. Through play, children learn about the caloric amount in various food items that a child may select and intake daily. By ways of constant decision making and competitive game play, the hope is that children will start thinking more about their food choices with newly obtained information of the food items and be able to make informed decisions such as building healthier eating and exercise habits.