The one benefit of having a diet plan like Medifast is keeping you from 'straying' outside the set plan. This happens too often when we sit down to watch TV and get the urge to eat while watching. Medifast can help you adhere to the plan and avoid those urges, especially when you may be subjecting yourself to stimulating urges that you might not have realized.

Apparently, the emotions that are stimulated by seeing images of death or dying on the TV, can stimulate the urge to eat. On the flip side, if you focused on doing something else with your life (other than TV), and experiencing the joys it has to offer, you just might be more inclined to stay away from food and be healthier. With television, the penalty is twofold - not burning any calories, and adding calories if you're eating. 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 overconsumption 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: We've discussed this before - the top 3 diet vices being soft drinks, fast foods, 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) - the stimulus of eating when faced with images of death. 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 is avoid the TV all together. Educational channels, ok. Comedy, ok. Anything else, no. And while you're at it, do some exercise if you absolutely feel you have towatch. You can have the best of both worlds this way.

HWI

If you are interested in a meal plan to assist with your weight loss and health, Medifast provides a diet that makes it easy to plan the foods and meals you will eat. Click here - Medifast - to try the Medifast diet meal plan to help you get started losing weight. Medifast is physician-developed.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.