Want to Buy Healthy? Eat Something Healthy First
Photo:aidanwojtas/Flickr/Creative Commons License
We all know shopping on an empty stomach is an awful idea. When you shop for groceries while you're starving, everything on the shelves look amazing, to the point where your cart ends up with all sorts of nonsense. So, eating beforehand is important.
However, it also matters a whole lot what you eat before you shop.
Last month, Cornell released a study looking at how the type of food one eats before they shop affects their subsequent shopping decisions. Researchers took 120 shoppers, randomly gave them either an apple sample, a cookie sample, or nothing at all when they entered a grocery store, and tracked their purchases. They found:
[T]hose who were given the apple sample bought 28% more fruits and vegetables than those given a cookie sample and 25% more fruits and vegetables than those given no sample.
So, how can this information be used? I spoke with Dr. Aner Tal, lead author on the study at Cornell's Food and Brand Lab.
Do you know why eating the samples affected the shopping decisions?
Dr. Aner Tal: We think it's basically priming, which means an activation in people's minds of a particular action. If you're exposed to something in the category of healthy, that will make you more likely to pay attention to healthy things in your environment, and subsequently buy them. [Another] study provided some testimony to that. In that one, there wasn't anything different between the samples, all people got chocolate milk. But for one group, we framed it as a healthy milk drink, and in the other one, we framed it as an indulgent drink. So, it looks like it's just the way people frame things. Framing that something is healthy puts people in a healthier mindset.
Are there problems, then, with people thinking that something's healthy when it's not at all?
Tal: Definitely, that happens all the time. There are specific tricks that companies use to make people think something is healthy. Having green colors on the package can make people think something is healthier, or having particular health claims, like "No Trans Fat" on something that never had Trans Fat to begin with.
How can stores and consumers use the information from the study?
Tal: There are some grocery stores that actively encourage healthy choices. For instance, one of the stores around Cornell, Wegmans, have healthy checkout aisles. Instead of getting exposed to snacks at checkout, you get exposed to healthier options. In this context, we think the first sample you get exposed to is going to set the tone. So, if people step into a store, and usually there are fruits and vegetables in the front of stores, if they get samples of fruits and vegetables, that might help inform their choices.
As far as what people can do, just eating a healthy snack before you shop can have two advantages. One, if you're hungry and go shopping, you buy more bad stuff. If you eat a small snack, it'll make you less hungry and you'll avoid that. And if you eat something you perceive to be a healthy snack before, according to this research, you'll lean towards healthier choices.
Does having healthier checkout aisles affect the previous shopping choices as well?
Tal: It's not going to change what you chose before. Some people eat at the checkout, but generally they've already selected what they're going to purchase. But if you avoid unhealthy choices at the checkout -- these things are there because people buy them. In line, you see a Snickers bar or other snacks, and you naturally pick them up. And it's at the point of sale, so that makes it even more attractive. Creating healthy checkouts wouldn't affect directly with what you buy in the store, but it would incrementally reduce less healthy choices. Fruits and vegetables at the checkout might be problematic, but there are healthier alternatives than are currently there.
