A study by Cornell University found that people who shopped for groceries on an empty stomach were more likely to buy high-calories foods than people who were not hungry.
Researchers conducted two separate studies to provide more conclusive findings, and both times hungrier individuals purchased more high-calorie foods.
In the first study, researchers gathered 68 individuals ages 18-62 and separated them into two groups. Both groups were asked to not eat anything for five hours before the study. After the five-hour period, one group was given a box of Wheat Thins and told to eat enough to feel full, while the other group was not given any food. Both groups then shopped in a virtual grocery store that provided both high-calorie items and low-calorie alternatives. Researchers concluded:
- Hungrier participants selected more high-calorie products
- Neither group selected more items than the other
Researchers followed the virtual study by conducting a field test with another group of individuals under similar pretenses.
In the second experiment, 82 participants were separated into two groups. The first group went grocery shopping between the hours of 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. (a time when they were likely to be full from lunch), while the second group shopped between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. (a time when they were likely to be hungry before dinner). The results echoed the findings of the virtual study, as it found that individuals in the second group bought fewer low-calorie foods than the first group.
“Given the prevalence of short-term food deprivation, this has important health implications,” researchers Dr. Brian Wansink and Dr. Aner Tal wrote in their findings. “It suggests that people should be more careful about their choices when food-deprived and possibly avoid choice situations when hungry by making choices while in less hungry states (e.g., by eating a small meal before shopping).”
In their conclusion, Wansink and Tal wrote that the hungrier participants showed greater brain stimulation in certain areas that influenced decision-making.
“Fasting participants showed increased activation in brain areas associated with reward, including the ventral striatum, amygdala, anterior insula, and medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex, in response to high- calorie, versus low-calorie, foods,” Wansink and Tal said. “If reactivity to high-calorie foods is increased following fasting, it may well be that people would also choose more of those foods relative to low-calorie foods.”
So the next time you realize you need to make a trip to the grocery store, remember to grab a quick snack to help you feel full. It may help your waistline down the road.
Dr. Silverman comments
This study leaves a bad taste in my mouth! Of course shopping hungry will affect your food choices. We all know that and we don’t need a study to show it.
What we do need is a study to show how eating different food before you shop affects your choices in the store. Sticking a bunch of sugar in our bodies right before shopping (yes, Wheat Thins are complex sugars coated in salt) will definitely affect our brain bathing by it in glucose.
Also, I’m not the biggest fan of measuring food solely on its calorie count. High calorie items like chicken, nuts, fish we know are good for you but this study infers the opposite. Fat free cookies and low fat potato chips are low calorie, yet we know they are really bad for you. This study would have one believe otherwise.
The concept of calories in = calories out as a dieting technique has already been shown to fail miserably in nearly all diet studies. Why do people keep choosing to look solely at calories? Because we still can’t get our head around the fact that the fat (the most calorically dense food source) is actually healthy to consume and carbohydrates are bad for you. They raise insulin and cholesterol levels, and they lead to enhanced fat storage in the body. The science is clear, the politics cloud it.
Related source: MedPage Today, JAMA Internal Medicine
