Eating Healthy before Shopping Makes you Buy Healthy Food

According to a recent research, having a small, healthy snack before shopping can make one to select healthier foods. The researchers found that those people who ate an apple before going shopping bought 25 percent more fruits and vegetables compared with those who did not eat one.

Aner Tal, lead author of the study from the Cornell University said, “What this teaches us is that having a small healthy snack before shopping can put us in a healthier mindset and steer us towards making better food choices”.

The researchers had conducted three studies to test whether healthy snacks make shoppers to buy pick healthier foods. In the first study, 120 shoppers had given an apple sample randomly, a cookie sample or no sample at all at the beginning of the shopping trip.

Researchers found that those people had been given ample sample bought about 28 percent more fruits and vegetables compared with those who were given a cookie sample and 25 percent more fruits and veggies compared with those who were given no sample at all.

In the second as well as third study, the study participants had shopped virtually. The experiments had confirmed the findings of the first study, though the researchers noted that what influences a shopper’s behaviour after consuming a sample is not the real healthfulness of the sample but its perceived healthfulness.

Researchers of the study suggest that grocery stores can help in encouraging people to buy more produce by offering fruit and vegetable samples to shoppers as they enter the store.

The study was published in the journal Psychology & Marketing.

Read more Health News.
Image source: Getty
Source: newkerala.com