Paying with cash instead of plastic at the grocery store leads to more careful spending and healthier food choices, a study in the Journal of Consumer Research finds.
The idea is that shelling out actual money is psychologically more difficult than swiping a credit card, which takes away from the joy of spending.
Researchers followed the grocery shopping habits of 1,000 households over six months, tracking what they bought and how they paid for it. The study found that people who used debit or credit cards were significantly more likely to make unplanned, impulsive food choices. Their impulsive purchases also tended to be "vice products," like cookies, cakes and other unhealthy foods. (More on Time.com: The 'Other' Salt: 5 Foods Rich in Potassium)
"The notion that mode of payment can curb impulsive purchase of unhealthy food products is substantially important," wrote authors, Manoj Thomas, Kalpesh Kaushik Desai and Satheeshkumar Seenivasan. "The epidemic increase in obesity suggests that regulating impulsive purchases and consumption of unhealthy food products is a steep challenge for many consumers."
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