Grocery Lists Don't Guarantee Healthy Choices

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And don't ever shop when you're hungry.

"We know that when you are too hungry, it's like being too tired or too drunk," she said. "What comes from that is apathy -- 'Whatever, I'm just going to take this.' "

A separate study, published in the same issue of the journal, suggests that the human mind finds other ways to get around self-control. In some cases, suppressing one area of mental or behavioral activity spurs an excess of activity in another area, such as spending.

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In the study, researchers at the University of Minnesota asked half of the participants to perform a mental task but to not think of a "white bear." Then they gave the participants $10 to spend at a bookstore. The shoppers could keep any unspent money for themselves.

The result: People who had tried to stop themselves from thinking about the "white bear" spent an average of $4.05 -- nearly three times as much ($1.21) as participants who were put under no such constraint.

The finding may have lessons for people who embark on regimens involving self-denial, the researchers said. Perhaps, they wrote, "people should avoid shopping on days when they have earlier exercised great self-control or when starting a new self-improvement program, such as a new diet."

More information

There's more on healthy eating at the American Dietetic Association.

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