Question: What’s one of the most popular ways Georgetown students procrastinate on campus?

Answer: Television.

It’s true. Whether you are an avid fan of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Office,” “Lost” (which I wish was back on now instead of January), “Pushing Daisies” (love Jim Dale’s narrations), “Heroes” or the many other shows that currently dominate the tube, the fact that we can now watch our favorite programs online at ABC, NBC or any of those other alphabet soup URLs whenever we want makes it that much easier to push those pesky papers temporarily to the side and park our butts in front of a widescreen laptop.

But this being a food column and me being quite food-obsessed, I’m not here to talk about the twisting and highly unrealistic plotlines of “Desperate Housewives” or the fashion eye candy of “Gossip Girl.” Instead, it has come to my attention that I have been treating my weekly television viewings not only as times for usually mindless entertainment but as entirely new meal or snack times. And, even more curiously, in such cases, I tend to pick and choose certain foods depending on the overall tone of the show itself.

Maybe this is just a completely pointless study on my part, but I’m wondering if others go through the same ritual for different series that they watch. Observe. And then maybe you’ll see an interesting trend with the shows you watch.

1. “Grey’s Anatomy”
Overview: Extremely rare medical conditions (who do you know has ever suffered from spontaneous orgasms?), steamy on-call room trysts and incessant Seattle rain surround a bunch of interns-turned-residents. Bloody emergencies, family/relationship problems and the rest of the usual drama all come with the territory.

Food of choice: Packages of yogurt pretzels, homemade biscotti (see last column for the recipe!), brownies from Dean & DeLuca and/or red grapes if I’m feeling somewhat healthy.
Personal Analysis: Bloody scenes with limbs (tree limbs, that is) protruding from bodies equals the necessity for high amounts of sugar, especially for the highly squeamish. There’s something extremely comforting about slowly eating your way through a bag of fresh chocolate chip cookies as you watch the chaos ensue on screen.

And if the unfortunate patient doesn’t make it at the end of the episode, well, at least you’ve now got enough hyperactivity in your bloodstream for the both of you.

2. “The Office”
Overview: A “mockumentary” that takes a closer look at the Scranton branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin paper company, complete with a very awkward and embarrassing boss and a rather interesting variety of employees.

Food of choice: Usual vending machine options and brown bag lunch items — peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, peanut butter and fluff sandwiches, Lay’s salt and vinegar chips and banana nut Odwalla bars.

Personal Analysis: Maybe it’s my subconscious telling me to eat stuff I find at the office? They always show the break room and seeing all that junk food always gets me hungry! And there are no points of extreme suspense that require copious amounts of sugar or sodium (unless you count the time Jim should have proposed to Pam last season during the fireworks and didn’t), so the choices are more mild, but still tasty.

3. “Pushing Daisies”
Overview: Cute “forensics fairytale” about a pie maker who can bring people back to life by touching them but who also has the capability to take it away with his second touch. He uses his gift/curse as a means of “solving” murder cases, but the most bittersweet part is that his childhood sweetheart, killed for smuggling gold monkeys, is one of those he cannot touch. Cute golden retriever included.

Food of choice: Tortilla chips and guacamole, Cheez-Its, more pretzels — but this time with Nutella — and occasionally, if it fits into the right time slot, a Wisemiller’s Chicken Madness.
Personal Analysis: In a show that revolves around the creation of pies and honey, my mind is bound to act inversely and therefore crave anything savory. The saltier the better, though sometimes that can be tempered with the chocolate-hazelnut spread, which I can eat at any time. Plus, since there are whole pies making appearances in nearly every other scene, I need something just as substantial, like the Chicken Madness, to balance out the buttery baked goods I see on screen.

TV shows have the strange ability to both quash and start cravings we don’t even realize we have until the show is over and we’re sitting on our beds with an empty bag of chips lying next to us. Just keep it in mind when you watch the next couple of episodes, particularly if you’re a fan of different genres. You might be surprised.

Becky Quan is a sophomore in the McDonough School of Business. She can be reached at quan@thehoya.com. Out to Lunch appears every other Friday in The Guide.