NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who eat meals or snacks while
watching TV, playing games or reading tend to consume more
calories in a sitting, and especially later in the day,
according to a review of two dozen past studies. "Some studies
have individually shown this before, but the evidence has never
been put together," said lead author Eric Robinson from the
University of Liverpool, UK. According to Robinson, distracted
eating could increase the amount of food consumed by up to 50
percent. On the other hand, summoning memories of what was eaten
in a previous meal decreased the amount of food eaten later.
"Even though we make decisions about what and when to eat with
apparent ease all the time, these decisions are actually very
complex and can be easily disrupted," Suzanne Higgs, a study co-
author and psychologist at the University of Birmingham in the
UK, told Reuters Health in an email. The researchers broadly
categorized eating patterns as "attentive," such as sitting
quietly and recording what was ea