Does Boredom Make You Fat?

Hi! I thought you might find this interesting. In the January/February 2015 edition of the Nutrition Action Health Letter (published by the Center for Science in the Pubic Interest) there was a short article about a study done in Holland which looked at the relationship between boredom and eating.

In that study (published in the journal Appetite 85:52, 2015,) 60 young men and women were shown a 1 hour documentary about a Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist and told they could eat as many M&M candies as they wanted to while watching the film. The film was shown to them on two days. On the first day they were shown the full 1 hour documentary, however, on the second day they were shown an 85 second clip from the film over and over again for an hour. Not surprisingly the young men and women ate twice as many M&M’s on the second day than on the first. Lesson learned: the more interesting your activity, the less you will eat! Good to know!

For more information on the Nutrition Action Health Letter go to www.cspinet.org.

Until next time,

Dr. Sheila