Why Do People Enjoy Dinner with a Show? 為什么“電子榨菜”好“下飯”？

導讀：“電子榨菜”也太下飯了！不過研究表明，它可能對進食有危害……

A spoonful of pickles can sometimes make a meal taste way better. Today， people are interested in a new type of pickle： “digital pickled vegetables”. It refers to the videos people watch while eating that make their food more appetizing.

Instead of being accompanied by friends and family during a meal， many young people in China are kept company by TV shows or short videos. Many believe that their food is tastier with the “digital pickled vegetables”.

Can this habit affect your diet？ According to a research paper published in 2019， you may eat more unconsciously. The international research team asked 62 volunteers to follow different eating patterns on four different days. The patterns included eating while looking at the mobile phone， reading magazines and without distraction. After analyzing their diets， the team discovered that eating with a distraction increased caloric ingestion by about 15 percent.

一勺榨菜有時能讓一頓飯吃得更香。如今，人們熱衷于一種新型榨菜——“電子榨菜”，即人們吃飯時看的視頻，這些視頻有“下飯”的作用，能讓人越吃越香。

在中國，許多年輕人不是和朋友、家人一起吃飯，而是伴著電視劇或短視頻進食。許多人認為，就著“電子榨菜”，自己的食物更美味了。

伴著“電子榨菜”吃飯會影響進食嗎？根據一篇發表于2019年的研究論文，受這個習慣影響，你可能會在無意之間吃得更多。該國際研究團隊要求62名志愿者在四天內按不同的飲食模式吃飯，包括邊吃邊看手機、邊吃邊看雜志以及不受干擾地進食。在分析了志愿者的飲食后，研究團隊發現，吃飯時分心會多攝入約15%卡路里的熱量。

To explore the reason， the team also invited two groups of people： one group ate while listening to an audio clip about another person eating and the other listened to a clip that helped them imagine themselves eating. The results showed that the second group ate less since they were more focused on their meals. When eating with the “digital pickled vegetables”， our attention can be distracted， which leads to eating more than expected.

This works not only for eating meals but other demanding tasks as well. A research project led by the University of Sussex， UK， pointed out that activities which require lots of attention trick many participants into overeating. The team invited 120 participants to do various tasks while providing them with drinks and snacks. “Our study suggests that if youre eating or drinking while your attention is distracted by a highly engaging task， youre less likely to be able to tell how full you feel，” one of the authors Martin Yeomans explained.

為了探究原因，研究團隊還請來兩組人：一組人在進食時聽其他人吃東西的音頻，另一組人也在進食時聽音頻，不過這段音頻會讓他們意識到自己在吃東西。結果顯示，第二組人吃得更少，因為他們吃得更專注。我們伴著“電子榨菜”吃飯，注意力會被分散，因此會吃得比預期多。

這一規律不僅適用于吃飯，也適用于其他費力的任務。英國薩塞克斯大學主導的一個研究項目指出，耗費大量注意力的活動會誘使許多參與者暴飲暴食。該研究團隊邀請了120名參與者完成各種任務，同時為他們提供飲料和零食。研究報告的作者之一馬丁·約曼斯解釋稱：“我們的研究表明，你如果在吃吃喝喝時，注意力被一項耗費心神的任務所分散，那就不太可能感覺到自己有多飽。”

Word Bank

accompany /?'k?mp?ni/ v. 陪同；陪伴

His wife accompanied him on the trip.

distraction /d?'str?k?n/ n. 分散注意力的事

analyze /'?n?la?z/ v. 分析

demanding /d?'mɑ?nd??/ adj. 要求高的；費力的

The work is physically demanding.