Mindless Munching: The Effects of Distracted Eating

Authored By: Rma Lara Polce

Art By: Amber Briscoe

7:00 pm—the daily news blares while you mindlessly shovel food into your mouth. I'm sure many of us can relate to this scene. 

In recent years, it has become the norm to binge-watch Netflix or scroll through our TikTok For You Page while eating. A recent study found that more than half of the adults tested concurrently ate while watching some form of television [1]. The issue is that few of us stop to think about the health implications of this behavior. Adding these stimuli during mealtime leads to distracted eating and a slew of adverse health outcomes. For example, adults who watch some form of media while eating consume an average of 150 calories more than when they do not [2]. 

Multi-tasking while eating is a significant contributor to the United States’ already serious obesity issue. More than 40% of US adults have obesity, and 9.2% of these cases are severe [3]. Unfortunately, chronic inflammation, the hallmark of obesity, has been linked to an increased risk of hypertension, coronary artery disease, and heart failure, to name a few [4]. These potentially debilitating comorbid conditions are at an all-time high in the United States, with nearly half of adults having some form of cardiovascular disease [5]. Alarmingly, a study of over 7,000 children determined that those who watched television while eating were more likely to be overweight or obese compared to their peers who did not [6]. These habits are likely to carry into adulthood as well, meaning that unhealthy children today are likely to be unhealthy adults in the future [7]. With these dangerous conditions on the rise, what can society do to combat habits like mindless eating? 

Slowing down—yes, literally slowing down while you eat—is a significant step towards mindful eating. As established, distracted eating often leads to increased caloric load and weight gain, whereas mindful eating has been associated with higher diet quality and better food choices, such as fruits, instead of processed sugar-based sweets [8]. Mindful eating is also associated with reducing the burden of disease from obesity. A study of 194 obese adults showed that after 12 months of mindfulness interventions (including mindful eating, meditation, and affirmations), the mindful group had a lower intake of sweets and better maintenance of their fasting blood glucose than the control group [8]. 

Remodeling when you eat is another vital component to avoiding mindless eating habits. One potential approach to successful remodeling is exploring alternative concurrent activities such as knitting or coloring while watching TV to keep your hands busy with something other than eating [9]. Also, engaging in conversation with others during mealtimes can prevent mindless eating. Furthermore, when eating in front of others, we tend to put on a show and model our behaviors after our best eating practices, thus often choosing healthier options and eating less [9]. 

As obesity levels increase and the overall health of the US population declines, unhealthy practices like mindless eating need to be tackled head-on. Slowing down and remodeling eating occasions are fundamental steps that must be taken to improve unhealthy eating habits.  

References:

[1] Alblas, M. C., Mollen, S., Wennekers, A. M., Fransen, M. L., & van den Putte, B. (2021). Consuming media, consuming food: investigating concurrent TV viewing and eating using a 7-d time use diary survey. Public Health Nutrition, 26(4), 1–10. 

[2] Kammerer, Ann. (2019). Researchers Weigh Effects of Consuming Habits. MSU ComArtSci. https://comartsci.msu.edu/about/newsroom/news/weighing-how-calories-add-media-consumption 

[3] CDC. (2024, August 15). Adult Obesity Facts. Obesity. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/php/data-research/adult-obesity-facts.html.

[4] Lim, Yizhe, and Joshua Boster. (2024).Obesity and Comorbid Conditions. StatPearls, StatPearls Publishing. PubMed, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK574535/.

[5] American Heart Association. (2019). Cardiovascular diseases affect nearly half of American adults, statistics show. American Heart Association.

[6] Trofholz, A. C., Tate, A., Loth, K., Neumark-Sztainer, D., & Berge, J. M. (2019). Watching television while eating: Associations with dietary intake and weight status among a diverse sample of young children. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 119(9), 1462–1469.

[7] A Lifetime of Health Starts in Childhood | Strategic Discussions for Nebraska. https://sdn.unl.edu/article/lifetime-health-starts-childhood.

[8] The Nutrition Source. (2020, September 14). Mindful Eating. https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/mindful-eating/.

[9] Cleveland Clinic. Here’s Why We Overeat in Front of the TV (and How to Stop). https://health.clevelandclinic.org/put-down-that-remote-heres-why-we-overeat-in-front-of-the-tv-and-how-to-stop.