Watching TV and sitting at the computer is fattening, if you eat in front of the screen. It’s time to examine our eating habits and consider how best to repair them.

Most people agree that eating in front of the computer or TV leads to overeating. We unconsciously reach for another handful of that salty snack, another cookie, or another heaping forkful from an overloaded plate. We sit for long minutes or even hours afterward, instead of getting up and moving around to burn off some of the calories we just took in. Eventually, the mirror reflects a version of ourselves that we don’t recognize.

We might look up from a novel describing an old-fashioned family dinner, where parents and children meet over familiar dishes to catch up, argue, laugh, just observe each other. Each meal in the novel adds another brush stroke to a timeless family portrait. It makes us think – how long has it been since we’ve eaten a stress-free family meal, with no interruptions from cellphones and without the burble of the TV in the background?