Bargain hunters tend to be Overweight
Two chocolate bars for the price of one, the Jumbo bag of Chips, or the discounted use of a range of energy drinks: food with a high content of fat, sugar or salt are in the supermarket, often in the offer. This can have an impact on health. According to a study from the United Kingdom, people tend to be Overweight more likely to or even obesity, your shopping cart, especially with special offers fill.
For their investigation, the scientists of the British Foundation for Cancer Research UK, analyzed the data of 16,000 UK households with a view to their purchasing behaviour, demographic and socio-economic characteristics as well as the size and weight of the buyers. Then they divided the buyers in four groups, sorted according to the proportion of items that were cheaper bought.
“Tempting but unhealthy”
The result: In the group that particularly many special offers access, 72 percent of people are overweight, while this percentage was higher in the group with a few offer purchases 64 per cent. For obesity, i.e. particularly strong or morbid Obesity, was increase the likelihood of in the bargain hunters group in order to 28 percent. The effect was across all income and age boundaries.
“Offers people a Wealth of tempting, but unhealthy food and drinks,” says Linda Bauld from Cancer Research UK. “In the case of discounted prices for chocolate, biscuits, cake and lemonade, it’s no Surprise that people buy more deals, have a greater probability of being obese.”
Four kilograms less fruit and vegetables in the month of
In addition, offer buyers for a fifth opted for more food, containing much fat, salt or sugar at the expense of healthier options: bargain lovers also bought 30 per cent less fruit and almost 25 percent less vegetables. This corresponds to approximately four kilograms less fruit and vegetables per month to avoid the case of buyers, which tend special offers.
Overall, the shopping cart of bargain-hunters contained more sugar and less fibre than that of other consumers. An observation that is not surprising the nutritional psychologists Joachim West höfer of the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg. That cheap food often have a high energy density, was already known for a long time.
Food as cheap as never
“Food today is so cheap as never before”, says the researcher, who was not involved in the study. “The result is an unhealthy over-consumption.” In Germany there are no comparable studies, but similar results would probably be: “Just food mentality in this country is a ‘greed is good’ -.”
The results of the study authors, mainly from two reasons: For one, it be especially the children that suffered the consequences of such purchasing behavior. Even now, every fifth elementary school students in the UK are overweight, according to the primary school, the proportion increases to one-third.
In Germany, around 15 percent of children and Teenagers between 3 and 17 years of age according to the Robert Koch Institute to thick. Nearly six percent are even obese. In the case of the adults in this country, 59 percent of men and 37 percent of women, according to Figures from the German society for nutrition as overweight.
The second reason why the British authors are sounding the Alarm: Obesity is now seen as a risk factor for at least 13 types of cancer, including colon and breast cancer. Probably an Overproduction of hormones promotes cancer growth. Even more important, according to the scientists, to facilitate consumers a healthy choice when shopping. You plead, therefore, to regulate promotions for unhealthy foods by law. The same should be bars for the selection of chocolate and the like are given, which are often in the checkout area.
Joachim West höfer holds legal regulations in Germany for superior value. Currently, the policy relies on voluntary self-commitments by the industry. “The rich,” says the food psychologist, “in order to get the obesity epidemic under control.”
