Grocery shopping shapes the home food environment, which can contribute to the development of obesity. Episodic future thinking (EFT) helps adults make healthier decisions by initiating prospective thinking, which guides one to forego smaller immediate rewards in favor of larger delayed rewards. EFT could help parents improve grocery purchases thereby improving the home food environment and family eating behaviors. The effect of EFT on food shopping was evaluated in two studies with mothers who were overweight/obese and primary household shoppers. In Study 1, 24 mothers were randomized to goal-directed process EFT versus a money saving control. In Study 2, 33 mothers were randomized to goal-directed process EFT, general EFT, or an episodic recent thinking (ERT) control. Following cue generation, participants completed a task where they purchased one week of groceries from an online store. Food purchases were analyzed for calories purchased per family member. In Study 1 the goal-directed process EFT group purchased fewer calories per person (F(1, 23) = 25.16, p < .001; ηp2 = 0.522). In Study 2 the goal-directed process EFT purchased fewer calories (F(1, 30) = 5.98, p = .02; ηp2 = 0.166) than the ERT control as did the EFT general group (F(1, 30) = 4.61, p = .04; ηp2 = 0.133). The two EFT groups did not differ from each other (F(1, 30) = 0.16, p = .69; ηp2 = 0.005). EFT may be an effective intervention for reducing the energy intake of foods purchased while grocery shopping.
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