CHAPTER 3

Shop (and Cook) Away the Pounds

SOME FOLKS JUST LOVE FOOD. They love shopping for food, they love

cooking food, they love eating food. They treat food like it’s an edible

record collection—they absorb trivia like sponges, and they love

thinking about it, talking about it, sharing it with others.

Some folks, on the other hand, couldn’t care less. Food shopping

is a chore, cooking is a pain, and as for the difference between a new

potato and an Idaho? Who cares? Food is something to be eaten for fuel,

so you can kill those nagging hunger pains and get back to work, play,

or watching the tube.

Now, which group do you think is more likely to be overweight:

the foodies or the know-nothings?

At first blush, you’d have to assume that the more you love food,

the more likely you are to be overweight. But that’s exactly wrong: It’s

the folks who mindlessly scarf down bland fast food while thinking

about something else who are more likely to see their weight balloon

upward. One study that examined the grocery shopping and eating

habits of 1,136 people found that those who looked forward to shopping

and employed a strategic approach to food buying by using lists and

planning out their week’s meals had healthier diets and ate many more

whole foods (fresh fruits, vegetables, and grains) than people who felt

that food shopping was a chore and employed no particular buying plan.

Another study found that those who watched TV during a meal

consumed 288 more calories on average than those who focused on what

they were eating. And USDA scientists recently studied the eating