Junk Food Purchases Don’t Slow Down in the New Year
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Glow Images, Inc./Getty Images(NEW YORK) — The end of the holidays couldn’t come too soon for some people, particularly those who saw their grocery bills swell because of the added parties and guests coming to their homes.
Cornell post-doctoral student Lizzy Pope says that it’s not unusual for people to spend an extra 15 percent on food bills between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. It’s also not that strange for consumers to fill their carts with junk food as only a quarter of the purchases are considered healthy.
However, something very interesting happens once the revelry ends, according to Pope who surveyed more than 200 households in conjunction with the University of Vermont’s Dept. of Nutrition and Food Sciences.
Based on the findings of three shopping periods with July up to Thanksgiving being the baseline, the researchers learned that people kept up their extra purchases after the first of the year and they continued to buy more junk food than usual.
In fact, Pope says that shoppers added nine percent more calories than they did during the peak holiday season, which runs contrary to most New Year’s resolutions. The researchers say if you’re buying more food, at least buy more produce to slow down calorie intake.
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