The produce drawer often becomes a vegetable graveyard — good intentions that slowly rot into guilt. What the evidence best supports is proximity rather than sight: across a Cochrane review, food placed farther away reduced consumption by a moderate amount, and the mechanism is effort rather than attention — people take the least effortful option without deliberating. The obvious move is even wrong for this food: clear containers raise intake of small snacks but reduce it for vegetables, which the researchers called a visual turnoff. If you regularly throw away spoiled produce, the system is broken. Buy with a plan, prep immediately, and put the produce where reaching for it is easiest.
This companion covers why the drawer fails, and the fixes. (4 min read)
Written by AI, directed and approved by me. How this is made →