- People ate 98 per cent more food watching thrillers than a calm interview
- ‘The more distracting a TV show, the less attention people pay to eating’
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Viewers eat more MMs and cookies while watching an action film than those watching an interview program
Watching loud and action-packed TV may make you pile on the pounds.
People were found to eat twice as much when watching action films compared to something calmer, in a new study.
Viewers watching a fast-paced thriller who were given MMs and cookies ate much more of their screen-side snacks compared to people watching an interview programme.
Past studies have shown that television can cause people to eat more, just like other distracting activities such as reading, listening to the radio and interacting with dinner companions.
But little research has been done into whether the content or pace of the content influences how much people eat, say Science Daily.
The authors of a new study examined how technicalities about a programme, like the frequency of camera cuts or variations in sound, might influence how much people eat.
The study included 94 undergraduate students of an average age of just under 20, and 57 of whom were women.
They gathered in groups to watch 20 minutes of TV and were randomly assigned to one of three different programs.
First up was a group watching The Island, an action film with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. Another group were assigned an interview programme called Charlie Rose; and a third group watched The Island on mute, so as to eliminate the sound variable.
Everyone was given equal amounts of MMs, cookies, carrots and grapes to snack on during thew programme, and the snacks were weighed before and after to track how much they had eaten.
The study, published in the JAMA Network journal Watch What You Eat, found that top snackers were those who watched the more distracting show, the original version of The Island.
They ate a significant 98 per cent more grams of food than viewers who watched Charlie Rose – that’s almost twice as much.
More distracting TV content appears to increase food consumption: action and sound variation are bad
Those watching The Island, ate 206.5
grams while those watching Charlie Rose ate just 104.3 g. The Island
viewers also ate 65 per cent more calories (354.1 vs. 214.6).
Even viewers of the silent version of The Island ate 36 per cent more grams of food (142.1 vs. 104.3g) and 46 percent more calories (314.5 vs. 214.6) than Charlie Rose viewers.
‘More distracting TV content appears to increase food consumption: action and sound variation are bad for one’s diet,’ say the study’s authors.
‘The more distracting a TV show, the less attention people appear to pay to eating, and the more they eat.’
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