Ah, the holidays. It's the time where we indulge in our favorite home-cooked comfort foods and other treats and sweets. Now that the holiday season is over, it's time to cut out excess calories and get back into shape. Or so we thought.
According to a new study, even though healthy food purchases increase after the holidays, junk food purchases do not decrease. That means you might not be eating as healthy as you promised yourself you would on New Years.
For the study "New Year's Res-Illusions: Food Shopping in the New Year Competes with Healthy Intentions" researchers from the University of Vermont and Cornell University studied over 200 households in New York State, following their grocery spending for a seven month period from July 2010 to March 2011.
In order to identify trends the researchers split their data into three periods. The household baseline spending was represented in the period from July to Thanksgiving, the second period was Thanksgiving to New Year's and New Year's to March.
Published in the journal PLOS One, the researchers found that although the consumers spent 15 percent more on food (including more junk foods) during the holidays, they bought the most food after New Year's. But while families tend to buy more healthy items after the holidays, they also buy more foods that are high in calories, fat, sugar and salt.
"Despite resolutions to eat more healthfully after New Year's, consumers may adjust to a new 'status quo' of increased less-healthy food purchasing during the holidays, and dubiously fulfill their New Year's resolutions by spending more on healthy foods," the study author's wrote.
The study revealed that calories increased 9 percent, or 450 calories per serving each week after New Year's compared to the holidays, and 20 percent more, or 890 calories per serving each week than the baseline.
The week from January 30 to February 5 was found to be the least healthy for households, where more than 6,000 calories were purchased per serving. During the holidays the average calories purchased was 5,098.
"People start the New Year with good intentions to eat better," said lead study author Professor Lizzy Pope of the University of Vermont. "They do pick out more healthy items, but they also keep buying higher levels of less-healthy holiday favorites. So their grocery baskets contain more calories than any other time of year we tracked."
The study suggests that people spend more on healthy foods after the holidays to cancel out the guilt associated with continuing to eat junk food, in what they call a "health halo" effect.
[Photo Credit: Pithawat Vachiramon/Flickr]
