Eating and Watching Things
“Music can also be a sensual pleasure, like eating food or sex. But its highest vibration for me is that point of taking us to a real understanding of something in our nature which we can very rarely get at. It is a spiritual state of oneness.”
-Terry Riley
Eating while watching or listening to something has been with humans an incredibly long time. Nothing seems to help us tuck in a meal (or snacks) like flipping on our favorite show! From movies to the theater, it is quite common for visual and audio stimuli to be present while we eat every now and again and there are a few theories as to why this is.
Some people say that we enjoy watching things because we are social creatures and the act of eating while tuning into our favorite shows is fulfilling both our need to consume food as well as our social needs at once. Others say that engaging in the visual/audio stimuli during food consumption aids in distracting us from our meal (particularly if it is unappealing).
One interesting theory is that because many people don’t share in family meals as much as we used to, we turn to television is an alternative (again harkening to the social interaction). One thing we do know is that music can impact appetite and in some respects make it easier to eat. Whether you’re actively watching something or passively listening it seems like having some form of media present while eating has become the norm.
Still, some researchers say that eating while watching something is not the healthiest thing we can do because of the risk of overeating. The suggestion is to engage in social behaviors when eating. Get together with family and friends to eat a meal. This is undoubtedly ideal; however, due to the many changes and life circumstances we face as a culture, this may be easier said than done.