14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers with Cornell University in the US claim that, according to evidence at hand, action movies are partly to blame for the fact that some people's waistlines are a wee too thick for their own good.
Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association: Internal Medicine, the specialists detail that, as confirmed by a series of experiments carried out with the help of volunteers, action movies encourage overeating.
What's more, the researchers say that, the busier characters in a movie get, the more viewers want to eat. It's almost as if their mouths were trying to keep up with all the commotion going on on screen.
In their paper documenting this research project, the specialists explain that, as part of this investigation, they offered undergraduate students various snacks, i.e. M&Ms, cookies, carrots, and grapes, and made them watch TV.
Of the volunteers who took part in this study, a third watched 20 minutes of an action movie dubbed “The Island.” Others were made to sit through the same movie segment on mute, and another group got to watch part of a talk show titled “The Charlie Rose Show.”
While the study participants were busy watching TV and feasting on M&Ms, cookies, carrots, and grapes, the Cornell University researchers closely monitored their eating habits. It was thus discovered that folks in the first group and the second had a bigger appetite.
“People who were watching The Island ate almost twice as many snacks – 98% more than those watching the talk show!” study co-author Brian Wansink explained. “Even those watching 'The Island' without sound ate 36% more,” he added, as cited by EurekAlert.
Not at all surprising, these people also consumed more calories. Specifically, the volunteers in the first and the second group consumed an average 354 calories and 314 calories, respectively. The folks who got to watch “The Charlie Rose Show” only ate about 215 calories' worth of snacks.
“More stimulating programs that are fast paced, include many camera cuts, really draw you in and distract you from what you are eating. They can make you eat more because you're paying less attention to how much you are putting in your mouth.”
“We find that if you're watching an action movie while snacking your mouth will see more action too! In other words, the more distracting the program is the more you will eat,” study lead author Aner Tal commented on the outcome of this series of experiments.
In light of these findings, specialists recommend that people who want to watch action movies and keep fit opt for healthy snacks when deciding to pass the time watching characters running around and saving the day on screen.