I'm sitting in a coffee shop with my 11-year old enjoying hot cocoas with whipped cream in a frigid day in New England.
Upon reading this, one might think we are engaged in a quaint mother-daughter moment.
But the actual observer would
see me with my laptop and she with her little sister's Nintendo DS. The intention was for us to read for a bit, but technology has grabbed a hold of both of us. At least we are cozied up elbow to elbow. The book beside me is Brain Wansink's Mindless Eating. I'm in the middle of chapter 5, on Mindless Eating Scripts. It's a thoroughly entertaining but sobering book.
Of course, I realized that my daughter and I are currently engaged in "desktop dining," what Wansink refers to as multitasking while eating (e.g., reading, working, watching TV, etc.) -- hence my inclination to write about it.
The consequence of desktop dining: consuming more calories than one would when paying attention to a meal.
And here's a thought provoking statement:
Dashboard diners and desktop diners are less likely to be overachievers than they are to be overeaters. (Pg. 104, paperback edition).
We are blessed with the skinny gene, or so it seems.
But we are not immune to the overscheduled, overly demanding nature of modern culture requiring us all to be supermoms and superkids. This is the first year our family is really struggling to find evenings to sit down and have dinner together.
The activity, sports and work-related demands have entered a new phase of scalability.
Both my daughters are in an individual sport. One is in gymnastics and the other in figure skating -- sports in which weight and body shape may be a factor as they grow up and their bodies mature.
(I secretly hope they will prefer the more team-focused sport of soccer where size and ability can take many forms.)
This brings to mind research by a well-regarded public health scientist,
Dianne Neumark-Sztainer.
In an article on how parents can help teens achieve a healthy weight and positive body image, she notes two key influencing factors in teens with weight-related problems (i.e., the spectrum of under eating to overeating):
(1) Family weight concerns, or the emphasis on body weight, shape and size as expressed by parents through poor role modeling or derogatory comments -- even if unintentional, and
(2) Family meal patterns such as low meal structure (eating on the run or while multitasking) vs. high meal structure (sitting together).
Both of these familial influences are modifiable -- that is, parents can change how they talk about body weight using more positive or supportive messages about their child's body relative to the more harmful messages from the media and external sources (I include sport coaches and teammates in this); and families can try to have more meals together or work to enlist support from schools and communities to achieve this.
Which brings me back to Wansink's book --
we all need to pay more attention and it starts with small steps.
Fortunately, one simple tip is to
enjoy food.
That's exactly what my daughter and I are doing now with these delightful hot cocoas.
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