Eating distractedly can cause you to gain weight. Science says so

Are you more the type to eat while watching the TV news, scrolling on your smartphone, or flipping through a magazine? In fact, whatever the answer to this question, you are part of what scientists call “distracted eaters.” That is to say that, even at meal time, swallowing the contents of your plate takes second place, your mind being occupied by a completely different activity.

Rest assured, you are not alone in this situation. According to a study conducted by Lotte van Dillen, a professor of social psychology at Leiden University, about 70 to 75 percent of the time, people are distracted and doing something else while eating.

Distraction makes us eat more

However, according to researchers, this dietary distraction has harmful effects on our weight. Indeed, when we are distracted, whether by the program on television or messages on our smartphone, we tend to eat more. And since we don’t give our brain time to receive satiety messages, we tend to eat again or snack some time after finishing the meal. Distractions not only prevent us from fully appreciating the contents of the plate, but they add a cognitive load to our brain, which disrupts the perception of satiety signals.

Distraction dulls the taste of food

Researchers have also discovered that distractions also dull our taste and ability to smell food. In a test, they made around forty people drink more or less sugary water, while giving them cognitive tasks that were more or less easy to perform. And people who were most distracted by complex tasks tended to taste less sugar.

In short, the simplest solution to avoid increasing our BMI is to put away our mobile devices or turn them off, according to researchers. But the good news is that socializing is an exceptional distraction, scientists have found. Chatting around the table while eating does not encourage us to eat more. Conversation causes us to eat more slowly, which allows more time for fullness signals to be communicated to the brain and felt.

Source : Daily distracted consumption patterns and their relationship with BMIScience direct, September 2022