Diet Influenced by TV
The emotions that go with contemplating your own mortality are such that the stimulus to eat kicks in, while if you focus on the joys of life, you just might be more inclined to go do something you enjoy. If you watch TV and the images show someone dying or death-related, then the emotions you feel could bring you to want to eat more, according to new research. This may be an eye-opener for those who are trying to not only lose weight but achieve something greater in their life than just maintaining the status quo.
The latest research in the Journal of Consumer Research from ASU marketing professor Naomi Mandel shows that people who are exposed to death-related images and ponder their own mortality tend to overeat.
Mandel and Dirk Smeesters, a professor from the Netherlands, worked together to conduct several experiments in the United States and in Europe. They asked people to write an essay about their feelings toward their own deaths. Participants then checked off items they wanted to buy from a grocery list.
The researchers found that those who wrote about their deaths wanted to consume or spend more than those in a control group who wrote about undergoing a medical procedure.
"People who thought about the idea of dying chose to consume more food in general, whether it was healthy or not, to put these thoughts out of their mind," Mandel says.
The researchers found that an explanation for the over-consumption is cultural standards. In the United States, people tend to overspend on luxury items and overeat to meet a high standard of living. This made participants wonder if they had not lived up to these expectations.
"They started to question whether they have made a significant mark on the universe," Mandel says. "If they felt they had not lived up to cultural standards, they wanted to escape from awareness by eating." Read more...
Bottom line: The top four diet vices are soft drinks, fast foods, portion sizes and TV. Now there seems to be even more to watching television than we previously thought. As if sitting and doing nothing for hours each day isn't enough, people are eating when faced with the thought of dying. While it may be the TV show that delivers these thoughts, the fact remains that sitting and being idle with nothing but the influence of outside thoughts from the TV, is certainly not healthy. Making your own decisions, thinking positive thoughts, and controlling what goes into your brain, are all important pieces to feeling and being productive in life.
We use to call the TV a 'mind zapper' because you could tell when a person watched TV for too long. They just didn't seem like they were connected to reality. And if it means another opportunity to eat, especially while sitting and burning no calories, not to mention thinking negatively, then the conclusion must be to avoid the TV all together. Educational and comedy are ok, anything else, no. And while you're at it, do some exercise while you're watching. You can have the best of both worlds this way.
And portion sizes? Remember too much of a good thing is no longer a good thing. So if you are like me and have a pretty healthful diet but are eating too much of it, that's a vice! Eating too much unhealthy food? A really big vice! No easier way to bust that particular vice that by taking 3-6 PGX capsules 40 minutes w/ water prior to a meal or snack, or sprinkle the granuales on your moist foods, put them in what you bake or drink a Slim Styles shake as a meal replacement--20 grams of protein and very filling! and don't forget, save $5! Every time you buy it, use my coupon every time: http://www.vicebustingdiet.com/pgx-coupon.html
