Many employees these days eat lunch at their desks, because it seems like a harmless way to cram¹ more work into the day.

现在，许多员工都在办公桌上吃午餐，因为这样可以挤出时间干更多工作，而且似乎也无甚大碍。

They might not be so casual about it if they knew the habit was helping² them pack on extra pounds. A study in the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Nutrition found people who ate while distracted ate more, and felt less full after lunch, than those who focused on eating.

一心多用时，不知不觉地吃东西会让我们变胖。如果他们知道这个习惯会让他们变得肥胖，可能就不会如此满不在乎了。《临床营养学》（Clinical Nutrition）杂志二月期上的一篇研究报告称，与专心吃东西的人相比，吃东西时分心的人会吃得更多，而且在午餐后的饱腹感较低。

Researchers served a nine-item lunch to 44 participants who were split into two groups. One group was asked to eat lunch while playing a computer game of solitaire. The second group ate lunch without distractions³.

研究人员将44名参与者分为两组，让他们吃了一顿含有九种食物的午餐。他们要求一组在吃饭时玩电脑上的纸牌游戏，另一组则专心吃饭。

The participants who were distracted by the game felt less full after lunch, according to the study, led by Rose E. Oldham-Cooper, a researcher in experimental psychology⁴ at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. Even 30 minutes later, the solitaire-players gobbled down more snacks when they were offered, compared to those who had focused on eating. Worse yet, when researchers asked the participants to remember what they had eaten for lunch, those who had been playing solitaire had a much harder time remembering what they had consumed.

该项研究的主持者、英国布里斯托尔大学（University of Bristol）的实验心理学研究员罗斯?E.奥尔德姆-库珀（Rose E. Oldham-Cooper）称，分心玩游戏的参与者在午餐后的饱腹感较低。即使在30分钟之后，与专心吃饭的人相比，玩纸牌的人吃掉的零食也更多。更糟糕的是，当研究人员要参与者回想他们午餐吃了什么时，玩纸牌的人要花长得多的时间才能想起来。

The findings may 'help to explain the well-documented association between sedentary screen-time activities and overweight,' the study says. In addition to crowding out physical exercise, working or playing games on a computer may also cause us to gobble down larger amounts of food without thinking about it or even remembering that we have eaten.

该研究称，这些结论或许“有助于解释久坐电脑前与超重之间证据充分的关系”。除了挤占锻炼身体的时间以外，在电脑上工作或玩游戏也可能导致我们不过脑子就吃掉更多食物，甚至记不起我们吃过什么。

The findings hold true for me. If I make the mistake of putting a bag of chips or a box of crackers⁵ on my desk at deadline time, I often pack in the whole thing without even realizing it. If multitasking makes our minds wander from the tasks we think we are getting done, as we have posted in the past, then why should eating be any exception?

这些结论对我来说也成立。如果我错误地在工作任务截止期限前把一袋薯片或一盒饼干放在办公桌上，就经常会在不知不觉中吃光它们。我们之前的文章中曾有指出，一心多用会让我们的思维从自己正在做的事情上分心，既然如此，吃东西也不会例外。