Difference Between Mindless Eating And Distracted Eating

We've heard all our lives how watching TV while eating will make us consume more food. However, researchers have found that the other could be true.

The study found that being distracted by technology when eating might reduce your food intake. Researchers asked 119 adults to eat a meal while playing a video game. They concluded that the participants who were playing games while eating consumed less food than those that weren’t.

Researchers assessed the quantity of food the participants ate twice, once they played a computer game while eating and once they ate with no distractions.

The game which the participants played is employed for testing the visual attention and dealing memory. it's been used for patients with Alzheimer’s. It helped the participants stay distracted from food and focused on the sport.

Each participant was asked to eat the maximum amount as they like in quarter-hour while they were playing a game or sitting in peace.

Thirty minutes after eating, participants were asked to finish a survey. The survey asked the participants to recall the quantity of food they’ve been given, to recall what proportion of food they ate, and to rate their hungriness and fullness.

The researcher expected people to eat more while they were playing games and to recollect less of what they ate. However, the research has proven the other. Participants ate less while they were playing a computer game.

The study hints the difference between eating mindlessly and eating while distracted. Mindless eating happens once we eat without planning on doing so. On the opposite side, distracted eating refers to eating while watching a television program, playing a game, or answering emails.

The results of this research differ from many previous ones with an identical topic. This could be the case because the researchers compared the eating habits of people while they were distracted and while they weren’t, rather than comparing one group of individuals to the opposite.

This study claims something important. It finds the difference between eating while we aren’t conscious of it and eating while watching your favorite television program. It also opens the door for more studies and researches.