Holiday junk food habits stretch into new year, study suggests

Grocery shoppers seem to buy more junk food not only over the holidays, but well into the new year, a U.S. study suggests.

The holidays have a reputation for overeating, and resolutions can focus on eating healthfully.

But when researchers compared how much shoppers bought over a seven-month period, they found they tended to choose more healthy items but alsoloaded up foods rich in calories, fat, sugar and salt.

For the study, "New Year's Res-Illusions: Food Shopping in the New Year Competes with Healthy Intentions," researchers looked for shopping patterns among 200 households in New York statebased on their grocery spending over three time periods:

• U.S. Thanksgiving to New Years Day, the holiday period.
• New Years to March, the post-holiday period.
• July to Thanksgiving, the baseline amount.

Calories purchased each week increased 9.3 per cent (450 calories per serving/week) after the new year compared with the holiday period, and increased 20 per cent (890 calories per serving/week) compared with baseline.

"Despite resolutions to eat more healthfully after New Years, consumers may adjust to a new 'status quo' of increased less-healthy food purchasing during the holidays, and dubiously fulfill their New Years resolutions by spending more on healthy foods," Prof. Lizzy Pope of the University of Vermont and her co-authors at Cornell University concluded in the journal PLOS One.

• How your kitchen's layout can help you make better food choices, CBC Radio's The Current

People seemed to hang on to their holiday junk food favourites, said study co-author Drew Hanks.

In a release, theresearchers suggested consumers:

• Use written grocery lists to deter impulsive junk food purchases.
• Substitute less healthy foods with fresh produce and other nutrient-rich foods instead of just adding healthy foods to the cart.
• Split the grocery basket visually to serve as a reminder to choose nutritious foods for at least half of purchases.

The researchers acknowledged several assumptions, such as their focus on spending rather than consumption or objective measurements of weight gain, and the trends werent followed for an entire year.

They also didnt take into consideration how post-holiday sales on groceries could influence purchases and how people may have more guests at home during the holidays.

The participants were all given a 10 per cent discount on items rated for their nutritional value during the baseline period.