I think that even if I did have a dining area, sitting down at a table and eating alone without TV or reading or something, wouldn't last very long.

I think overall, we have a chewing problem. Isn't it like, 80% of your digestion could take place in your mouth, but we all just gulp and swallow? Spurious science again, I suppose, 'cause I don't have a cite. But I think I could probably stand to chew more.

I don't know either, but it sounds like the eight glasses of water thing again. If almost no one chews the recommended amount, and you can't identify the harm, then how is it the case that we need to do it for good health? And this goes into my vitamin supplement argument...

t /crank

I always watch TV while eating. It's practically a necessity.

When do you move?

End of February, it's looking like. Our tentative close date is Feb 15th, but that may get moved up.

You have a vitamin supplement argument?

Morning all. Thanks for all the Go Team Allyson last night. I woke up in a cheery mood!

Now am having tea, and will later see Kristen's groovy office at Drive! And will take pictures! And post them!

In our new apartment, we'll have a formal dining area with a real dining table, so the days of eating in front of the TV will be over.

This hasn't really helped me, since my lack of a real desk made the dining table my de facto work space.

Me either, since my table is the catch-all for all of my junk. Also, the computer & the TV are in the other room and have much more interesting things. Also also, the whole eating alone with only my thoughts thing not as much fun as it sounds.

Also also, the whole eating alone with only my thoughts thing not as much fun as it sounds.

Good to know I haven't been missing anything!

Ms. Allyson! I'm SO JEALOUS that I can't stand it.

Isn't it like, 80% of your digestion could take place in your mouth, but we all just gulp and swallow? Spurious science again, I suppose, 'cause I don't have a cite.

Part of the reason I'm always suspicious of easy stats (and especially BIG and conviently round numbers like 80%) is that claims like this don't say what "80% of digestion" even means. Breaking down food into smaller mush so it doesn't happen as much in the stomach? Probably true, but that doesn't prove anything about whether that's either needed or beneficial. We eat really soft diets and anyway, we evolved so that we'd gag when we try to swallow stuff that's not sufficiently chewed. Or is it the fact that the enzymes in saliva can break down starch into simpler sugars? Also true, but only a part of the process. Absorption of nutrients? Still has to happen lower in the digestive tract, no matter how much you chew. But 80% sounds nice, and the general idea has been around for ages in the form of wacky "chew every bite some religiously-significant number of times" diets.

(disclaimer: not a nutritionist, don't play one on TV, definitely don't eat like one)

The idea is based on the fact that the sympathetic and para-sympathetic sides of your nervous system cannot both be "turned on" at the same time.

As I understand it (again, could be talking out my ass here), this is kinda true -- sympathetic and parasympathetic responses tend to complement each other. But I'm still doubtful because the sympathetic system doesn't govern working or talking or surfing the net -- it's the fight-or-flight response, and I'm quite happy to accept that when the cheetah is coming across the squash court at me, my stomach-squishing rate is going to slow down for those few seconds. But there are other parts of the autonomic nervous system, other stuff we're talking about that's quite outside the autonomic etc., it's not a one-or-t'other series of tubes, and did I mention I'm not qualified to say any of this?

The 30% is subject to all the kvetching above about convenient and unsupported numbers.

All this basically means that I should clear all the crap off my dining room table so I can actually eat there.

No argument there. It makes dinner more dinnery!

I can see the point of not eating while driving or working, but seems to me that reading or watching tv is relaxing and doesn't require that part of the brain (sympathetic?) that directs you in doing things. Or maybe I'm rationalizing. But eating without reading? Never done it.

My conscious mind doesn't need to be involved in my digestion; it just needs to get out of the way. Which is true of a lot of other things I do, too. Like sex.