Making a Grocery List Could Improve Your Health

Heading to the grocery store armed with a list may make it easier to follow a healthy diet, a study of shoppers in Pittsburgh suggests.

Researchers surveyed more than 1,300 mostly overweight and obese residents in two poor, primarily African American communities and found that shoppers who regularly made grocery lists also made higher quality food choices and had lower body weights.

"We don't know whether people who are healthier pay more attention to what they eat and pay more attention to their weight and are also people who do more planning, or if people who do more . . .