Encouraging Healthy Food Shopping and Eating Behaviors by Price Reduction: A Community Supermarket Study

Encouraging Healthy Food Shopping and Eating Behaviors by Price Reduction: A Community Supermarket Study

The investigators plan to test the effect of price reduction of fruits and vegetables and non-caloric beverages on food purchasing, food intake, body weight, and body composition of primarily single adult shoppers. One hundred subjects will be randomized to an experimental or control group for a 4 month period. In the experimental group, there will be an automated 50% reduction in fruits vegetables and non-caloric beverages during the middle 2-month period. The investigators expect to observe significant changes in food shopping and eating behavior during this period, which should lead to body weight and fat loss. Some of these new shopping patterns should persist in the last month of the study even though prices revert.

Inclusion Criteria:

• regularly buy 50% of groceries at designated supermarket
• primary food shopper for household, shopping for up to one other person, not counting children ≤ 6 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

• significant medical or psychiatric conditions
• participation in a weight loss program or a related study