What are the dangers of reading while eating

Many people like to read or watch TV while eating. Anyway, they just don’t concentrate on eating, and most people think there is nothing wrong with this. In fact, this is completely wrong. If you don't concentrate on eating, it will greatly affect your appetite and have a great impact on the digestive system. In the long run, it will cause gastrointestinal diseases. So let me tell you about the dangers of reading while eating.

1. Easily affect appetite

In addition to physiological factors that can cause appetite, external factors can also enhance appetite through conditioned reflexes. When watching TV while eating, people tend to focus on TV and ignore the taste of food, which causes their appetite to decrease or disappear due to the suppression of TV. Over time, malnutrition will occur.

2. Affects food digestion and nutrient absorption

When people eat, they need digestive juices and blood to help the stomach and intestines digest food. Watching TV while eating also requires a lot of blood to the brain. In this way, they compete with each other for blood supply. As a result, if both sides cannot get enough blood, they will not be able to eat well or watch TV well. Over time, dizziness and blurred vision may occur.

3. Memory loss

When eating, the stomach and intestines receive food, mix it with digestive juices to form chyme, and then move the chyme downward through peristalsis. At this time, the gastrointestinal work is intense and heavy, and requires sufficient blood supply. If you read while eating, the part of your brain responsible for memory will become active and also need sufficient oxygen and nutrition. In order to cope with this situation, part of the blood flowing to the digestive tract must be diverted to supply the brain, resulting in a reduction in blood flow to the gastrointestinal tract, affecting the motility and digestive function of the gastrointestinal tract. On the one hand, it hinders the digestion and absorption of food. On the other hand, the brain does not receive enough blood to meet its needs, and it cannot remember the books it reads. Over time, memory will decline.

4. Affects absorption

When people eat, the brain participates in the secretion of digestive juices by the salivary glands, stomach and pancreas. The smell, color, shape of food and the sound of eating stimulate people's sense of smell, vision and hearing, reflexively promoting the secretion of gastric and pancreatic juices. Reading while eating and concentrating on the stories or pictures in the book will reduce the stimulation of food to the brain, reduce the secretion of gastric and pancreatic juice, and weaken gastrointestinal motility accordingly, affecting the gastrointestinal digestion of food and absorption of nutrients.