Although many people intend to eat healthily, their actual snacking behavior is often marked by a high consumption of calorie-dense, unhealthy snacks. One reason for this discrepancy may be that people tend to associate unhealthy food with tasty food, preventing them to follow up on their healthy snacking goals. To support people in snacking more healthily according to their intentions, there is an urgent need to better understand how people perceive the 'ideal snack', which may eventually be used to make healthy snacks more attractive. In the present research, we aim to elucidate conceptions of ideal snacks without loaded connotations of healthy and unhealthy, and subsequently compare them to features that are associated with healthy and unhealthy snacks. A Dutch community sample (N = 1087) was asked to generate conceptions of their ideal snack, and name features of what they considered to be (un)healthy snacks. The results revealed a multitude of idiosyncratic ideal snack conceptions. Commonalities were sensory characteristics and the notion of 'healthy'. Healthy and unhealthy snacks were primarily associated with their positive or negative consequences for health. These findings may inform the design and marketing of healthy, nutritionally balanced snacks that are palatable and attractive to the very people that make food choices.

中文翻译：

---

应有尽有的零食：人们对理想零食的联想

尽管许多人打算吃得健康，但他们实际的零食行为往往以高热量、不健康的零食为标志。造成这种差异的一个原因可能是人们倾向于将不健康的食物与美味的食物联系起来，从而阻止他们实现健康的零食目标。为了支持人们根据自己的意图更健康地吃零食，迫切需要更好地了解人们如何看待“理想零食”，最终可能会用它来使健康零食更具吸引力。在目前的研究中，我们的目标是阐明理想零食的概念，没有健康和不健康的内涵，然后将它们与与健康和不健康零食相关的特征进行比较。荷兰社区样本 (N = 1087) 被要求生成他们理想零食的概念，并命名他们认为是（不）健康零食的特征。结果揭示了许多独特的理想零食概念。共同点是感官特征和“健康”的概念。健康和不健康的零食主要与其对健康的积极或消极影响有关。这些发现可能会为健康、营养均衡的零食的设计和营销提供信息，这些零食对做出食物选择的人来说既美味又有吸引力。健康和不健康的零食主要与其对健康的积极或消极影响有关。这些发现可能会为健康、营养均衡的零食的设计和营销提供信息，这些零食对做出食物选择的人来说既美味又有吸引力。健康和不健康的零食主要与其对健康的积极或消极影响有关。这些发现可能会为健康、营养均衡的零食的设计和营销提供信息，这些零食对做出食物选择的人来说既美味又有吸引力。