TOM KEENAN
The dangers of distracted eating
Most drivers understand the wisdom of pulling over before using a cellphone or other piece of technology. All Canadian provinces and territories have some form of distracted driving law, and the fines, currently $172 in Alberta, are certainly getting our attention.
Now, experts warn about another hazardous behaviour — distracted eating.
Food industry analysts at the Hartman Group write that “social media is becoming our mealtime companion.” Their UnitedStates-based study revealed that “29 per cent of online consumers have used a social networking site while eating or drinking at home in the last month, and 19 per cent have done so away from home.”
There’s good evidence that eating while distracted can really add weight. Rose E. Oldham-Cooper and colleagues asked 22 men and 22 women to play solitaire on the computer while eating lunch. Later, they were asked questions about the nine foods they ate, but that was actually a cover story.
What these researchers at the University of Bristol really wanted to know was how the distraction of the computer game altered the eating experience of the subjects. They found that “distracted individuals were less full after lunch, and ate significantly more biscuits in the taste test than did non-distracted participants.” Oh yes, and they were also worse at recalling the list of lunch items they’d been served.
Another study, at a children’s hospital in Ottawa, found that “a single session of video game play in healthy male adolescents is associated with increased food intake.” This averaged 163 kcal, equivalent to about five to six shortbread cookies. The video game food binge seemed to occur whether or not the player was really hungry and “was not compensated for during the rest of the day.”
Since eating is so familiar, we assume we can do it unconsciously, but this prevent us from noticing when the body is full. The Bristol authors suggest this may help explain the association between sedentary screentime activities and being overweight.
I can confirm that phenomenon by direct observation, since I’m writing this at DEFCON 20, the largest and most famous hacker convention in the world, held every summer in Las Vegas. The guys here — and they are mostly guys — spend countless hours in front of screens, cooking up clever hacks and ways to defeat them.
With no time to get proper meals, cans of soft drinks, energy drinks, corn chips and cookies are the order of the day. From what I can see, these folks don’t spend much time at the gym. Some are actually moving into the disability category of obesity: for example, using a cane long before you would expect them to need one.
It would be unfair to let the biggest of all screens in the house get away unscathed. Watching television definitely contributes to obesity. Statistics Canada interviewed 42,600 Canadians back in 2007 and found that both television and computer use were associated with obesity, while another sedentary activity, reading, was not.
In fact, researchers in Finland put this all together, and found that television watching was more likely to increase the body mass index than playing video games. They note video games often involve using hand-operated controllers so “they do not leave hands free for eating, and they do not show food advertisements.”
As for those active video games, like running around hitting tennis balls on the Wii, they are a little bit better than the couch potato variety. Scientists in New Zealand investigated this and concluded “an active video game intervention has a small but definite effect on BMI and body composition in overweight and obese children.”
To counteract distracted eating, experts suggest a greater degree of mindfulness. You don’t have to go to the level of a Buddhist meditation teacher, but wolfing down food without even noticing it is a sure way to eat too much.