Even those with impenetrable willpower are tested when they pass the Tim Tam shelf at the end of the aisle. But new research out of the University of Albany suggests we can save ourselves the temptation, and the calories, by shopping online.
The study – presented at the American Psychological Association’s annual meeting – tasked 60 students with shopping for “nutritious, affordable and tasty” groceries online, to examine how their food choices fluctuated in relation to their individual impulsiveness.
They found that the participants made similarly nutritious food choices, regardless of their self-rated level of impulsiveness, LiveScience reports.
Although the findings are yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, Lead study author, Jaime Coffino, said that with further more extensive research, online grocery shopping could serve as a type of dietary intervention.
She added that searching for individual items rather than trawling the aisles made for smarter choices. Shopping online also made people more conscious of the amount of money they were spending, reducing the likelihood of adding impulsive picks to their carts.
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