Dieting and food choice in grocery shopping.
As obesity becomes increasingly prevalent, many people are trying to control their body weight through dieting, with mitigated results. We analyzed the impact of weight loss on food choice by recording the grocery basket composition of 100 participants, using their grocery receipts. Participants also anonymously completed a questionnaire about age, sex, diet, recent body weight change, reasons for recent body weight changes, and perceived difficulties in losing weight. Participants who had deliberately lost weight chose more dairy products, meat, and sweets and fewer fruits and vegetables than did controls. Passive weight-losers were similar to controls in their food choices. Active weight-losers show a stronger desire for high-caloric intake, probably because of a behavioral mechanism that seeks to maintain their original body weight set-point.
Paradis
Sébastien
S
Centre de recherche sur le métabolisme énergétique (CREME), Département d'anatomie et physiologie, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
Cabanac
Michel
M
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D004032:Diet / Q000191:economics; D005260:Female; D005502:Food / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D015431:Weight Loss