Every element of your story has to have a function, contribute to the story.

Anton Chekhov's famous advice is: 

'If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there.'

When you highlight something, point out something above the ordinary, focus your readers attention on it, even if only for a moment,  make it useful to the story.

Let's take Hunger Games for example. When Peta tries his hand at foraging for food, he almost eats Nightlock berries until Katniss bats them away.  Turns out they are poisonous. It's a little moment of no consequence aside from demonstrating the lack of survival skills of poor Peta. Almost.  Those little berries turn out to be crucial to the ending and about more than survival.

If you bring up something by highlighting it, your readers are going to note it.  Your curious readers (like me) will be waiting for the reason you made me focus on it. And we will be disappointed if we don't get a resolution.

The only exception to this rule might be the red herring.  But they should be used sparingly and always explained. 

Have you used Chekhov's gun?