Mindful Eating – Limit ‘Screen Eating’
Written By Connor Nellans
Are you eating right now as your read this from either your phone or computer screen? Do you often eat while looking at a screen? We are all guilty of it from time to time. We sit down to enjoy a nice meal and out comes the phone to browse social media or the computer to read an article or to put on our favorite show. Now, I am not trying to chastise anyone for this habit, like I said, we are all guilty of this! But I would like to discuss how chronic ‘screen eating’ can be detrimental to us.
How Screen Eating Promotes Mindless Eating
The biggest issue that eating your meals in front of a screen causes is mindless eating. When a screen distracts us, we are not as aware of what we are eating. We miss out on fully appreciating our food, flavor, texture and smell. We become almost robotic in how we eat and we do not get nearly as much enjoyment from our food as we would otherwise.
What Happens with Mindless Eating?
Not only do we underappreciated our food when we eat in front of screens, but it also can lead us to miss signals from our body on when we are full. Our attention is directed toward the screen in front of us and not toward our body telling us that it is satiated. This causes an obvious consequence of overeating. If we are not listening to our body’s signals on satiation it becomes much easier to continue eating what is in front of us as we are distracted.
Another consequence of distracted eating is not chewing our food well enough before we swallow. It is important to break food down through chewing so that our body is better able to absorb the nutrients from our food and also more efficiently digest the food we eat. This has the obvious benefits of getting more nutrition from food we are eating as well as improving any indigestion we may experience from time to time.
Put Down that Screen & Do This Instead!
As you can see, distracted eating in front of screens is not a habit that promotes healthy eating. We would be well served to limit screen eating as much as possible! When at home, try eating your meals at your dining room table with your phones away from you. At work, sit in your communal break room to eat at a table and leave your phone at your desk while you do. Try having a conversation with family and co-workers instead! Meal time has historically been a time to discuss ideas and chat about your day and many of us have been missing out on this important part of our social lives.
Keep those screens away during mealtime and you will see improvements in your appreciation for food, awareness of satiety, and digestion!
Are you trying to make sense of all of the nutrition advice you read about? Wouldn’t it be easier to hire a coach to break it all down for you and then have a community of others supporting you toward achieving your goals? That’s exactly what we offer with the Invictus Nutrition Online Program! Reach out to learn more about the program and what you have to look forward to with Connor Nellans or Jenn Ryan as your personal nutrition coach!
