NEWS FLASH: SUBTLE PSYCHOLOGY OF SHOPPING IN EMPTY STOMACH

A new study offers evidence to support what many people have learned for themselves: never go grocery shopping when you’re hungry. Researchers found that people who hadn’t eaten all afternoon chose more high-calorie foods in a simulated supermarket than those who were given a snack just before online food shopping.

And in a real grocery store, shoppers bought a higher ratio of high-calorie foods to low-calorie ones in the hours leading up to dinnertime compared to earlier in the day, the study team observed.

SOURCE: bit.ly/MbBLbb JAMA Internal Medicine, online May 6, 2013.