Eating during an action-packed program may keep people snacking more than they intended, a recent study says.
People tend to eat more food and consume more calories when distracted by programs such as action movies, according to a study published online in September in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine.
“We wanted to try to understand what types of elements in the environment affect people’s eating,” said study author Aner Tal, PhD, MBA, a postdoctoral research associate in the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab. “We try to identify ‘dangerous’ mindless eating situations so that we can inform people about them. People can be more careful if they know they’re heading into a situation where they’re more vulnerable to overeating.”
Nearly 100 undergraduate college students were split among three groups to watch 20 minutes of an action movie, the same action movie without sound or an interview program. All participants were given four snacks — carrots, cookies, grapes and M&M’s — and were told they could eat as much as they wanted, the study said.
Participants who watched and heard the action movie ate 98 percent more grams of food and 65 percent more calories than people who watched the interview program. In the silent version of the action movie, participants ate 36 percent more grams of food and 46 percent more calories than people who watched the interview program, the study said.
“It’s not that they specifically ate more of one thing — either healthy or less healthy — but just across the board they ate more,” Tal said.
Tal said the research is a warning against eating “limitless portions” of food, because situations where people are distracted, whether watching a movie or with company, can make them more vulnerable to overeating. Tal recommends having a pre-determined portion of food before eating.
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- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
