Distractions during meals can significantly increase appetite, warn experts. A new study shows that watching TV or playing on your smart phone can be extremely bad for a person's body shape. The study was carried out by scientists from the University of Birmingham and is quoted on the pages of the Daily Mail.
The more focused a person is on the food in front of them, the less they will consume and therefore the lower their risk of weight gain, clarify experts. Scientists claim that people who remember what they've eaten at their last meal also have less of a risk of gaining weight.
The fact that a person remembers what they've consumed during their last meal means that they did not rush to finish it while being enthralled by their smart phone but rather gave it special attention.
Experts studied 93 women of normal weight which were subsequently divided into 3 groups. The women in the first group were given the task of playing computer games while having lunch.
The ladies from the 2nd group also had to play computer games while eating lunch but their games awarded prizes. The 3rd group were not distracted by anything and ate in peace.
The lunch of each participant in the study contained 400 calories - the menu contained several different dishes. In the evening, the experts asked the ladies to eat baked cookies, while the researchers counted how many each of the participants would eat.
The women from the 1st group ate 29% more than the ladies in the 3rd group, while the participants in the 2nd group ate 69% more than those in the 3rd group.
Then the Birmingham experts conducted another experiment - 63 people took part in it. Scientists gave soup with bread to all of them. A portion of the participants watched TV while eating, while the other group ate their soup without being distracted by anything.
Just as with the 1st experiment, scientists offered baked goods to all 63 participants. The results turned out similar to the results of the 1st study.
Those participants who watched TV also ate 19% more of the baked cookies than the participants who did not have their attention distracted during eating.
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