Some tricks are just plain simple. The trick that I’m thinking of here is shopping with a list you prepared in advance. In a new study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, researchers from RAND Health studied groups of low-income, primarily African American urban neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with limited access to healthy foods. They discovered lists matter! Those who said they always shopped with a list had a significantly better quality diet and a lower weight, by an average of five pounds, than those who didn’t consistently use a list.

The people studied resided in areas known as food deserts – they have limited access to healthy foods and this problem amplifies the health risks of living in the areas. The people suffer disproportionally from obesity-related illnesses and chronic conditions.

The researchers postulate that making a list in advance is a useful tool to limit extraneous purchases and counter the effects of seductively marketed unhealthy options. Actually they hypothesize four benefits for using a list: acting as a memory aid; limiting impulse purchases, providing structure to encourage good eating habits; and preserving financial resources. And they highlight that the population studied might also benefit because they might also optimize purchase during trips to distant, less frequently visited stores, which have an array of healthier items.

Other research has shown the benefits of sticking with a shopping list, so this is not a new idea. The lead author of the new research, Dr. Tamara Dubowitz said that she “wouldn’t be very surprised” to see similar results for other income levels.

My first concern about this study is that you cannot say the list “causes” the better diet and lower weight. This is a common fallacy in the interpretation of studies with selection bias. Those who prepared and used a grocery-shopping list were a self-selected group. That is, they were not randomly selected by the researchers and taught to use the list. They decided for their own reasons to make and use their lists. Since they were self-selected, they may also have been by nature of a more conscientious personality. They may be those who cook more, and are used to following recipes, which feature lists of ingredients, while non-list users may not cook much. This ties in with the title of this post, that suggests the question, “Is it the list, or is it you”. Of course it’s you, and you will do a better job of remembering what you need, limiting impulse buying, eating better foods, and getting to a lower weight as you make and use your lists ever more competently and wisely. This can be learned!

So knowing that lists don’t cause anything, but the people who make and use them do, let’s just say that it probably wouldn’t hurt anything to get in the habit of using a grocery-shopping list, whatever it takes to get you started. The researchers of this study were very good, and fully understood selection bias. They stated more research is necessary to provide evidence that making and using lists brings about, or causes, the benefits to emerge. When these later studies are done, the results may validate the proposition that people who begin using lists, for whatever reasons, will surely be quite more likely to gain the true benefits of shopping with a list. This study competently illustrates that such benefits are likely.

I have used a grocery list as long as I have been in charge of grocery shopping; yes, that many decades. For me, a list helps me manage the life-style that I have chosen – that is, a busy lifestyle. I’ve always chosen to try to fit into my life a little more (or maybe more than a little more) than what should have fit in easily; and creating lists is one of the processes that helps me manage the details of a complex life. The process that I use is to write down the items that I’m getting low on. I like having my standard items stocked in the pantry or the freezer. It saves me from the practice that some seem not to mind – “running to the market to pick up whatever I just ran out of.” I dislike the extra trips to the market on more than one level; one, the extra travel time; two, related to one, the environmental impact of extra driving and third I don’t love shopping to begin with. So for me the shopping list is a no-brainer.

I’ll share that I make my shopping list on the computer before leaving home. I’ve already organized the list so I can run through the market and not back track to get the items. Now this may sound like OCD, but if you do this you end up with time to do other things that you’d rather be doing than grocery shopping. Shopping with a list, helps me be a little like a horse with blinders on. I just go straight for the aisle where I know the market stocks the item I have on the list. One of the side benefits is that I don’t waste time looking through highly marketed, interesting, but probably not so nourishing processed foods.

Now I’ve read and heard many times that people say if you shop the perimeter of the market, you’ll be safe from buying lots of junk foods. I don’t really embrace that notion. Certainly, many ingredients and foods that I purchase are in the interior of the market. I’m just recalling where I go to pick up canned beans and dried beans; whole grains like whole wheat flour, oatmeal, brown rice and our summer shredded wheat; whole grain pasta; canned salmon and tuna; and lastly all the spices and dried herbs that make my from scratch cooking taste great, are in the central part of the market. It is true that I get the majority of my shopping from the perimeter fish, nonfat Greek yogurt, nonfat milk, eggs, fresh vegetables and fruit. But let’s face it! There’s plenty of junk on the end caps at the market – the food processors often pay extra to have their item displayed on an end cap. So my contention is that there’s nothing sacred about this perimeter notion.

There’s one disadvantage of shopping with a list. Like a horse with blinders; I believe that you are more likely to miss the special sales. So if you’d love to take advantage of the specials, keep your eyes peeled for little signs. The market often puts a special little sign showing that something is temporarily and specially priced. In addition, I’d suggest, if you’re going to loiter anywhere, do it in the produce section. I admit that I often take extra time at both the farmer’s market and in the produce section. I’m not always thinking about what’s in season, but the prices and the end tables in the produce section are the mechanisms that often remind me. What’s in season is often the item when the price is at its the best. The meats and fish counter also often have the special little banners you can watch for.

Shopping with a list is a simple strategy to support focus on healthy foods and avoid being moved by seductive marketing of sugary, high-calorie, and often nutritionally impoverished foods. Some research on humans is just common sense. Lists do not cause anything, and research that proves causes is harder to do; but, the people who make up their own lists carefully, and use them with alertness to sales (of good things) while shopping are also the ones who are going to be more prepared to find, keep in stock, prepare, and serve healthy foods. True to this blog’s principles of do-it-yourself life style changes, as opposed to yo-yo dieting, list making and using is one of the tools an intelligent and pro-active person can use to get the food to the table each day and get the results of health and weight management that such a do-it-yourself project brings.