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New study says action movies make you snack more

Posted at 3:33 PM, Sep 02, 2014
and last updated 2014-09-02 15:33:07-04

If you're into watching action movies, you might want to start watching your waistline too.

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests people are more likely to do a whole lot of snacking when they're watching those action movies. 

Although we've known television and other forms of media can distract us from watching and limiting how much we eat, the researchers said they wanted to determine whether the type of content would have more or less of an effect on a person's eating habits.

The study involved a group of 94 undergrad students. Students were divided up into "groups of up to 20 people," and each group was assigned to watch 20 minutes of one of three programs.

One program was talk show "Charlie Rose" — this was clearly the nonaction programming. And the other two programs were action movie "The Island," but one showing didn't include audio from the film.

And here's where things get delicious. Researchers provided the participants with an unlimited amount of M&Ms, cookies, carrots and grapes to munch on while watching the shows.

Lo and behold, those who watched "The Island" snacked on 98 percent more grams of food than those who watched "Charlie Rose." And even without audio, participants still consumed 36 percent more grams of food watching "The Island" than those watching "Charlie Rose." That's 65 percent and 46 percent more calories, respectively.

What should movie-goers take from this? Watch this Newsy video to find out.