Artificial intelligence in nutritional health: sustainable consumers’ right to quality of life with special reference to youth

Abstract

Background Maintaining optimal youth nutritional health is an urgent socio-economic imperative that underpins long-term human productivity and rights-based development. However, modern youth cohorts face unique dietary threats caused by the widespread availability of ultra-processed foods, targeted digital marketing, and complex food labeling protocols. Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents innovative avenues for personalized dietary profiling, existing systems remain largely technocentric and detached from statutory frameworks or behavioral realities. Objective This study bridges this interdisciplinary divide by evaluating a rights-based, technology-driven framework to improve youth nutritional health. It aims to: (1) empirically evaluate the “Knowledge-Attitude-Practice” (KAP) gap linking statutory consumer rights to real-world eating habits; (2) present the engineering design of a non-commercial Progressive Web Application (PWA) built to translate legal safeguards into daily behavioral changes; and (3) triangulate these findings using data from youth surveys and expert legal and nutritional panels. Methods Using a cross-sectional approach based on non-parametric power constraints, a validated survey instrument was completed by a target sample of Indian youth (n = 354, aged 15–25 years). Concurrently, data matrices were compiled from regional legal experts (n = 12) and public nutrition professionals (n = 12) to cross-verify structural bottlenecks. Group variances, demographic dependencies, and rank associations were analyzed using robust non-parametric tests, including One-Way ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis (H), Welch’s t-test, and Kendall’s Tau (τ) correlation coefficients. Results Inferential analysis revealed unexpected demographic trends: undergraduate status predicted significantly higher FSSAI safety awareness than post-graduate status (p = 0.0037), while subjective health ratings exhibited a non-linear relationship with household income (p = 0.0004), peaking in the lower-middle financial tier. Crucially, rank correlation testing revealed that the relationship between statutory knowledge and actual dietary actions is functionally non-existent (τ = −0.001). This near-zero correlation provides clear empirical proof of a pronounced Knowledge-Action Gap, confirming that passive legal literacy fails to influence food selection in modern environments. Conclusion By framing automated behavioral interventions within the constitutional protections of Article 21 of the Constitution of India and the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, this study shows how the open-access PWA (nutrition-zb.pages.dev) can bridge this behavioral gap. This shifts the focus of consumer health informatics from basic self-tracking to a rights-based, systemic public health intervention.