So says a Canadian-led study, reports the National Post. According to the study, video games actually compel individuals to consume more food – even if they are not hungry.
Twenty-two young male test subjects sat for an hour in a comfy chair. Then, on separate ocassions, they’d spend an hour playing video games. The study’s findings showed that after gaming, the teens gobbled up 80 more calories at lunch.
Blood work, however, didn’t show any evidence that gaming actually made them hungrier.
“It’s a worse story than just being a sedentary activity,” said Dr Chaput, a kinesiologist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario research institute. “When we play video games, yes, we burn few calories, but we also eat more.”
Researchers theorise that food becomes a “reward” of sorts during gaming. It’s not only gaming that apparently causes individuals to eat more – using the computer supposedly increases the desire to munch.
Next up, Dr Chaput hopes to research whether the Wii also triggers the same over-eating effect found in this study or rather, simply the desire for Nintendo to release more Wii games.
Video games make you eat more: study [National Post]
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