Sleepy Shoppers Haul Home More Calories

Groggy grocery buying can make you fat. That’s one possible conclusion from a new study. Researchers gave 14 normal-weight men about $50 each to spend on a morning shopping trip. This occurred after they had been sleep deprived the night before. They repeated the shopping excursion on the morning after a normal night’s sleep. In each case, the men could choose any of 40 foods to buy. The list was evenly split between high-calorie and low-calorie items. They were supposed to spend most of the money. Before both trips, the men were given a hearty breakfast so they wouldn’t be hungry. Men bought 18% more food, with 9% more calories, after being sleep deprived than after having enough sleep. The journal Obesity published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it September 5.