Monday, September 2, 2013

Grocery Shopping While Hungry

 
 
YES, THERE IS A STRATEGIC TIME TO GROCERY SHOP
 
Have you ever gone grocery shopping while you’re hungry? We have, and we ended up making some less-than-healthy choices because everything looked good. Goodbye yogurt, hello ice cream, goodbye apples, hello chips. We could never definitively say that our hunger made us buy those chips and that ice cream, but now we can. Now, there is research to back up that behavior. Directors of a recent study by the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University have found that high-calorie foods are more tempting to hungry shoppers. http://foodpsychology.cornell.edu/outreach/hunger.html
The study revealed that even short term food deprivation not only increases overall grocery shopping, but leads shoppers to buy 31% more high-calorie foods.
As part of the study 68 meal skippers, who were asked to fast for five hours before the study, were either given food (Wheat Thins) to reduce their hunger or not given any food to keep them hungry following the fast. The participants were then asked to make purchases at a simulated grocery store. The hungry shoppers that did not eat the Wheat Thins bought 18% more food – including 31% more high-calorie snacks.
Other findings from the study:
  • Those who shopped between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. (the hungriest hours between lunch and dinner) bought fewer low-calorie products, compared with those who shopped between 1p.m. and 4 p.m., when they were more satiated from lunch.
The Takeaway
According to Brian Wansink, PhD and co-author of the study, “make sure you don’t skip a meal, or at least have a snack like apples or string cheese in your office,” he said. “Breakfast is the most skipped meal, and even having something for lunch that has protein will cut your hunger edge.”
Who knew there was a strategic time to do your grocery shopping? In retrospect, it seems so obvious that grocery shopping while hungry could lead to making unhealthy food choices. The more we know, the easier it is to be healthy. Consider yourself fully in the know.

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