Advertisement
Home Health Body & Fitness

More than we can chew

Digital distractions and mealtimes are a bad dietary combination.
Digital distractions and causing bad eating habits.

Multitasking is common now­adays, whether that’s writing an email while watching television, eating a snack at the wheel of the car or folding the washing and talking on the phone at the same time. In some cases multi­tasking is useful, but often it’s inefficient.

Advertisement

A Stanford University study found people who regularly multi­tasked with media devices such as phones and computers were less capable of ignoring distractions and worse at task-switching than others.

The phenomenon of the second screen is a ­modern-day example of multitasking. Second screen is the name given to a mobile device (such as a smartphone, tablet or laptop) used while watching TV – our first and greatest distraction. Nearly half of New Zealanders use a digital device to access the internet while sitting in front of the TV, which is all well and good until mealtime comes around.

Adding meals to the multitasking mix means we’re more likely to overeat. If we eat in front of the TV or while using a tablet or smartphone, the distraction of the technology takes the focus away from hunger and fullness cues, making it harder to gauge how much we’re eating.

This is borne out in a recent study published in Public Health Nutrition, which found a strong link between using digital media while eating and poor dietary habits among young adults. Eating on the run and buying food and drinks away from home are also associated with poor diets. The findings echo other studies looking at how multitasking by young adults affects diet.

Advertisement

Researchers say a significant proportion of young American adults spend 15 minutes or fewer eating many of their meals, after giving no consideration to meal planning or food choices and while watching the box or engaging in other tasks. This is a real concern as planning meals and focusing on eating (rather than multitasking) are habits associated with healthier eating patterns.

Likewise, eating in a hurry can lead to poorer food choices. For example, a recent US study found schoolchildren were less likely to eat fruit or finish their milk and vegetables at lunch time if they were allocated less than 20 minutes to eat their meal, rather than 25 minutes or more.

In New Zealand, many schools allocate just 10 minutes of supervised eating time during the lunch break. Children given less time to eat at lunch may miss out on key parts of a healthy diet. Delaying or missing meals has its own bad effects. For starters, we’re more likely to buy unhealthy food if we shop while hungry, as many of us know from experience.

A 2013 study in JAMA Internal Medicine confirmed this, revealing hungry shoppers chose more high-calorie foods in a simulated food-shopping task than satiated shoppers. What’s more, we’re even more likely to acquire non-food items when hungry – in one study, hungry participants snaffled up bigger piles of paper clips than ­satiated participants, for example.

Advertisement

Food is central to our daily existence, because we must refuel ourselves regularly throughout the day and it takes time and effort to gather the food, prepare a meal and consume it. We pay with our health, and wealth, if we try to short-change our food-related responsibilities by not giving them the time, attention and focus they deserve.

Structured, well-planned meal routines are the foundation of a healthy diet. Among young adults, healthier dietary patterns are evident when they prepare meals at home. And meals eaten with friends or family are also likely to result in a healthier dietary intake, with greater consumption of fruits and vegetables.

It helps to allocate time and thought to planning family meals. Get family input on meal ideas for the coming week. Then encourage everyone to sit down together to focus solely on enjoying the meal.

Words by Jennifer Bowden

Advertisement

Photos by

Related stories


Get your favourite magazines home delivered!  

Subscribe and save up to 38% on a magazine subscription.

Advertisement
Advertisement