The Doctor Weighs In

by Pat Salber, MD

Compulsive eating is linked to TV viewing according to a study presented at the June 2-5, 2007 Endocrine Society meetings in Toronto.    Alan Hirsch, MD, Director of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, designed the study. It must have been a lot of fun to be a participant.

Subjects got to eat potato chips while watching five minute monologues by either David Letterman or Jay Leno. They also ate chips during a five minute TV-free period. Subjects were not told the nature of the study to avoid influencing their munching behaviors. They were told that they should pay attention to the chips' sensory characteristics, such as taste and smell (aka, Soul-full Eating).

Forty-five adults ate chips with Letterman, Leno or in silence over the course of three weeks. The order of chipping and viewing were varied randomly. Participants ate more when distracted by an entertaining monologue, eating 44% more while watching Letterman and 42% more while watching Leno compared to what they ate when the TV was turned off. There was no difference in chip consumption related to body mass index, nor how much the participants enjoyed the monologue or the potato chips.

Hirsch suggests that watching TV “distracts people from the usual sensory cues and internal body changes that signal satiety.” If you want to lose weight, he concludes, “turn off the tv and pay attention to your food.”