Why You Shouldn’t Watch TV (or Phones) While You Eat

It seems crazy that we are in that point in time where we even have to have this conversation. I’m a parent of 2, and I know how much of a struggle this can be. Algorithms have improved, and companies know how to go after your limbic system (the lizard brain). We’ve all seen it, out at a restaurant, everyone staring at their phones. We’ve been guilty of it too, myself included. 

There are several reasons to avoid this. I’m going to exclude all the social ones such as the art of conversation, being an example for the young, etiquette, etc. The main thing I want to focus on is…digestion. 

You may have heard of the autonomic nervous system. This is the component of the nervous system that runs in the background and controls things like breathing so we don’t have to spend precious brain activity on things that can be automated. There are 2 divisions, the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (relax and digest). The sympathetic nervous system pulls levers in the body that make it advantageous for you to survive if you have to fight or run. It turns off the digestive system to conserve energy for the cardiorespiratory and musculoskeletal system. Perhaps you already see where I’m going with this. 

It’s not a light switch, but more of a gradient. There are activities that are more sympathetic than others. One of the things the sympathetic nervous system does is mobilize glucose from muscle to the bloodstream to be used for fuel. I just spent a month wearing a continuous glucose monitor and was surprised to see how my blood-glucose spiked while driving. I’m not a particularly angry driver, but it was a clear spike. 

The body has a lot of redundancies, and that’s a great thing for survival. We can breathe through our nose which is more associated with the parasympathetic nervous system, or we can breathe through our mouth, which is more sympathetic. You can belly breathe (parasympathetic) or chest breathe (sympathetic). Even vision is related. Fixed and focused vision (like staring at a phone) is more sympathetic, and a broader, more peripheral vision state is more associated with the parasympathetic nervous system. That’s why going to the beach or looking at the horizon is so relaxing. 

One of the first things I do when I evaluate a new patient is having them lay on their back. Without saying anything, I just watch how they breathe. I would estimate 75% are chest breathing dominant. This is certainly not a perfect assessment, but it gives me a rough estimate of where they are. 

But that’s beside the point. When you are eating, you obviously want your digestive system working properly. If you are looking at a tv or phone, your gaze is fixed and therefore more of a sympathetic state. Your digestion is inhibited. Not to mention, most programming on tv is geared towards stimulation. The phrenetic tik tok videos your kids are watching, do you imagine they are relaxing? 

We spend too much time in sympathetic mode, and if you have pain, and start to pay attention to the little things like this, you may just see a pattern. Dial in the simple things that you know you’re supposed to be doing, and it might just be all you need. 

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