How to Make Healthier Food Choices While Shopping

You already know that grocery shopping on an empty stomach can be perilous. When you’re hungry, you’re more likely to buy high-calorie, low-quality foods and less likely to stick to a healthy eating plan. Cupcakes look especially yummy when your tummy rumbles. A new study from the Cornell Brand Lab has discovered that eating a healthy snack before you shop will not only tame your hunger but may also put you in the mindset to buy healthier foods, keeping you firmly on track with your weight loss eating plan.

Researchers recruited 120 people and randomly gave them an apple sample, a cookie sample, or no sample before the start of their grocery shopping. At the finish, the scientists took an inventory of each person’s cart and found that the apple eaters had purchased 28 percent more fruits and veggies than those who had eaten the cookie and 25 percent more healthy foods than those who ate nothing.

They followed up with two studies in their laboratory where volunteers again were given a cookie or apple sample and then went on a virtual shopping experience, choosing from 20 pairs of foods, each pair containing one healthy and one unhealthy item. Those who enjoyed the cookie chose 35 percent more unhealthy foods than those who ate the apple sample.

Eating healthy foods vs eating unhealthy foods before shopping

In another laboratory study, participants were divided into three groups. One group was asked to drink chocolate milk labelled “healthy, wholesome chocolate milk.” The second group drank the exact same milk but labelled “rich, indulgent chocolate milk,” and the third group drank no milk. All participants then shopped in a virtual grocery store. The group that drank the “wholesome” chocolate milk made the healthiest food choices, indicating that it’s not the food itself that influences your buying decisions. Rather, if you eat a food you believe to be part of a healthy eating plan before you shop, it may influence you to purchase more nutritious groceries.

At the end of these studies, researchers concluded that eating a healthy food primes healthiness—it exposes you to the concept of healthiness, sensitises your mind to it, and subconsciously steers you to make healthier food choices.

Might eating a fruit or vegetable appetiser steer you to serve yourself more veggies at dinnertime? According to the Cornell research, it should, but it hasn’t been formally studied yet. Of course, you can never go wrong by adding more healthy foods to your diet, whether you are following a weight loss eating plan, getting in shape, or just want to be healthier overall.

To help keep you on track with your weight loss eating plan, consult with your Curves Coach, who can offer healthy eating tips. And make your next trip to the market—or maybe your next meal—nutritionally more fruitful by first snacking on an apple, carrot sticks, or other healthy food. Pass on the chocolate milk, though.