Does junk food at non-food stores add pounds?

A new study shows that candy, soda and other junk foods are commonly sold at stores not traditionally associated with food — in a trend that researchers say may be contributing to the U.S. obesity problem.

The study, of more than 1,000 non-food retail stores across the U.S., found that 41 percent sold candy, soft drinks, chips and other sweet and salty snacks. The foods were most commonly placed at check-out counters, where they were “within arm’s reach” of impulsive buyers, the researchers report in the American Journal of Public Health.

Nearly all drug stores and gas stations in the study sold snack foods — as did a majority of general merchandise stores, hardware and garden stores and automobile repair shops.

Even some stores selling clothes, books or furniture offered customers a snack selection.

The problem, the researchers contend, is that this “ubiquity” of snack foods may tempt many people into buying calories that they otherwise would not.

And over time, those calories could add up to extra pounds, write Dr. Thomas A. Farley and colleagues at Tulane University School of Public Health in New Orleans.

A number of studies, the researchers note, have found that when people grab snacks throughout the day, they typically do not compensate by eating less at meals.

“This suggests that calories consumed through impulse purchases of snack foods will increase total daily (calorie) intake and thus contribute to weight gain,” Farley and his colleagues write in their report.

They estimate that if a person sees snack foods at retail stores twice per week, and ends up buying a typical product only 10 percent of the time, that would mean an extra 2,600 calories in a year. That, in turn, could translate to close to a pound of weight gain per year.

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