Super Bowl Snacking Trumps Thanksgiving Dinner in Calorie Counts

This Super Bowl, Americans consumed more food and calories than during other weeks last year, a new study portends.

The study based on grocery spending in the run up to Super Bowl showed that Americans consumed 6,000 calories in total, per serving of all the foods a New York household purchased. The study comprised 207 households. The calorie consumption during Super Bowl this year exceeded Thanksgiving, which usually tops the food consumption list, The Washington Post reported.

The study also found that Super Bowl week sees an average expenditure of $ 150 in supermarkets, higher than any other week.

"Despite resolutions to eat more healthfully after New Year's, consumers may adjust to a new ''status quo'' of increased less-healthy food purchasing during the holidays, and dubiously fulfill their New Year's resolutions by spending more on healthy foods. Encouraging consumers to substitute healthy items for less-healthy items may be one way for practitioners and public health officials to help consumers fulfill New Year's resolutions, and reverse holiday weight gain," researchers wrote in the Plos One journal.

The study's methods of counting sum total calories per serving also revealed that people make a conscious decision to purchase high calorie foods besides just binging during Super Bowl. It also established that the week before the Super Bowl week is second unhealthiest in terms of consumption, as the average consumption hovered at 5,500 calories per serving. It is no surprise it also is was found to be second most expensive week after the Super Bowl week.