Canadian Researchers Say Hard Thinking Leads To Big Meals

Anti-Globalism writes with an excerpt from a story at Ars Technica, according to which "a preliminary study from a group of researchers in Quebec suggest that working on a computer may have an additional impact on our waistlines: taxing mental effort appears to cause people to eat significantly more food, even though it doesn't burn many more calories than sitting around and relaxing. The publication, published in a journal called Psychosomatic Medicine, arose from a pilot study that the researchers were performing in order to determine whether a potential connection between mental effort and eating was worth following up on."

Comments

Vindication

[AKAImBatman]

First to clear up a small matter. Merely reading the summary is somewhat misleading. While the brain's actual energy usage stays consistent, the study shows that blood sugar and insulin levels varied radically during the tests. Furthermore, the subjects in the tests showed marked signs of stress, including heightened levels of cortisol in their bloodstream. Here's the relevant section:

The authors provide two potential explanations for their findings, both of which may be accurate to varying degrees. The first involves sugar metabolism. The brain is especially reliant on glucose, and the blood tests revealed that both glucose and insulin levels changed during the KBW tasks, while they gently sloped off during the relaxation. The differences weren't consistent--the two KBW tasks sent the levels in opposite directions--but the instability of the levels was large for both of them. The authors suggest that the eating may simply be an attempt to give the body the chance to stabilize blood glucose.

Their other suggestion is that people find KBW stressful. Both the survey results and blood levels of cortisol (a hormone associated with stress) indicated that the KBW tasks took a mental toll. High stress has been associated with increased eating in a variety of contexts, so the upped food intake in this study may simply reflect that.

What's particularly interesting about these results is that two things have been known for a while now. The first is that the brain's energy usage is relatively constant regardless of the task. However, it has also been clear that severe mental activity can result in signs of fatigue, exhaustion, and greater energy consumption. I personally can attest to these symptoms after several extremely challenging programming tasks. (Ever tried cobbling together an emergency replacement JSP engine inside 3 hours? That was... interesting.) Yet this is simply at odds with the scientific evidence on hand.

This study finally offers evidence to break the impasse. It is the first evidence to clearly show that there is a physiological and not merely a psychological effect from extreme mental work. I look forward to hearing the results of future studies. Perhaps a more effective diet or lifestyle can be devised to make knowledge workers more effective.

Re:Vindication

[blahplusplus]

Sedentary work + stress = overeating, who would have thunk it?

The real problem is the desire for money outweighs (pardon the pun) the desire for a sane society, i.e. exercise, etc. Having a certain amount of hours off a week for exercise/relaxation and whatnot, I was just reading something about how americans have near the least vacaton time a year compared to other industrialized nations.

I'm not surprised given the nature of our stupidity when it comes to taking care of ourselves, money first, health later.

Re:Vindication

[Venik]

Perhaps this also explains my lack of appetite :)

Re:Vindication

[JamesTRexx]

Although I don't disagree with the desire for money being a real problem, it has nothing to do with the study.
Whether it's one day, or 5 days in the week, when I'm at work solving whatever problems show up on network/server/client side, I feel more hungry and eat something several times a day.
I'm much less hungry when I can relax during the day and don't have to sort out a chaos. In the past 3 weeks vacation I've eaten mostly 1 or 2 times a day and lost about 5 kgs. And I'm definitely eating a lot more healthy at work than in these weeks. I've also been a lot less active so that's no excuse either.

Re:Vindication

[Thiez]

> I happen to believe that thinking hard- programming- writing- puzzle-solving for hours on end burns way more energy as opposed to sitting on your ass watching a sitcom. It just has to, right?

Depends. Maybe the difference in energy-consumption between a programming brain and a sitcom-watching brain is very small, or even insignificant. Note that while you may not feel like you're thinking much while watching that sitcom, your brain is doing all kinds of (difficult) stuff like facial recognition and speech recognition. While you are programming/writing/puzzle-solving you usually don't have to pay attention to faces and sounds.

Maybe concious activities merely feel more tiring than unconcious ones, but actually aren't.

Re:Vindication

[mpe]

When you are thinking hard, you are exhausting neurotransmitters at a greater rate, even if you are not using more energy. Several of these require sodium to produce, which needs therefore to be consumed from food. I find that low fat crisps or rice crackers are an excellent accompaniment to thinking hard about something - this gets rid of the hunger very quickly without providing much other than salt.

Remember it's currently fashionably to regard sodium as "bad". With KCl or even more exotic salts being used as a replacement for NaCl...

Without knowing what food the people consumed, this study is not very valuable.

This is an issue with many dietary studies.
Together with the simple fact that measuring the "energy value" of food by burning it in pure oxygen is at best an approximation and at worst a complete fiction about what the human body will do with it. i.e. testing the same mass of glucose and cellulose in a calorimeter will give you the same results. But you'd get very different results from feeding them to a human (you probably wouldn't even get the same results if you used termites, which have bacterial symbiotes which enable the digestion of cellulose.)

Re:Vindication

[Ksisanth]

As a type 1 diabetic I've long known that mental exercise is just as effective as moderate physical exercise in reducing my daily insulin requirements and driving down glucose levels, but I've never noticed any later spikes that would be expected with increased cortisol.

Re:Vindication

[Stickerboy]

>Or maybe current ideas about "healthy eating" are incorrect in some ways.

Probably not... the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet which forms the basis of current National Institutes of Health dietary guidelines has been shown to lower blood pressure, cut the risk of having a stroke by 18% and the risk of a heart attack by 24% over a period of 24 years.

The diet consists of lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and up to 2 servings of meat a day; dairy should be low-fat or non-fat. In other words, lots of vitamins, fiber, and complex carbs. Moderate protein content, low in fat and sodium.

What does your fad diet do for you?
 

Re:Vindication

[Lord Flipper]

The system here isn't perfect by any means

First, I want to say that I hope your brother made a full return to health and is doing well, and secondly, that I assume you are very proud of your father. Working people have been the backbone of all civilizations that ever amounted to anything.

But, you know, there are some 'cracks' in our system. I acquired a disease in Canada, from tainted blood, 15 years ago, and now that I have been back home in the States for 7 years, the virus went deadly on me. Through a bankruptcy of a company I worked for in Florida, and an extended period of serious unemployment in Upstate New York, I found myself having to shut down a new company of my own, in order to be clearly poor enough to qualify for Medical Assistance here in Minneapolis.

On the one hand, I am very grateful that the State has found a way to cover my chemotherapy. I'm indebted to them for that. But I should have been able to get some sort of affordable coverage AND continue to work. But that wasn't possible in NY, and furthermore, they wanted me to sue my ex-wife, who is 20 years separated, and the mother of my daughter, or NY State would turn me down. Which they did, twice. Minnesota, on the other hand, said my wife was in the clear as long as there was no joint property.

So, here I am, on very heavy chemo, living on $203 and $162 of food support, per month. It is tough, my friend, I kid you not. I am actually entitled to a payout, in a settlement of a class action, from the funds set up by the Canadian Red Cross, but need a lawyer to do the deal. I missed two payouts (the last being in 2004) already, due to my misreading of the days of qualification. I had thought it was from 1986 to 1990, but, in fact, it was from before 1986, or after 1990. I got my disease in the Vic, in Montreal, during 18 operations and 5 weeks in ICU, from December '92 to March '93.

The disease has been undetectable for four months now, but I still have 5 months of Interferon/Ribavirin to deal with yet. I consider myself very fortunate. But, in all honesty, I see room for improvement in the system, itself.

I am an exception

[Slur]

Long hours computing causes me to forget food... and sleep... and water... and stretching... but interestingly, not sex! Perhaps there's a study I could take part in?

On the other hand, I'm a vegan, so maybe I'm immune. I don't ever crave cheese or animal fats, having not eaten any of either for many years.

Re:I am an exception

[EdZ]

I eat mainly meat-based meals ("Vegetables? that's not food, that's what food EATS!"), but I can honestly say I've never craved animal fats.

Re:I am an exception

[the_womble]

Long hours computing causes me to forget food... and sleep... and water... and stretching... but interestingly, not sex!

1. So at least you get some exercise
2. Are your long hours computing surfing for porn?

Re:I am an exception

[thhamm]

On the other hand, I'm a vegan, so maybe I'm immune.

I'm a level 5 vegan -- I won't eat anything that casts a shadow!

Re:I am an exception

[TeknoHog]

Me too... I don't think we are unique snowflakes here. The traditional geek stereotype for decades has been skin and bones, with the fat pizza-and-coke eating kind a relatively new phenomenon.

Re:I am an exception

[Antique Geekmeister]

Really? Have you ever seen portraits of Ben Franklin? Now, _there_ is an archetypal geek. The man _invented_ public libraries, and bi-focal glasses for us older geeks.

Re:I am an exception

[Onan]

The traditional geek stereotype for decades has been skin and bones, with the fat pizza-and-coke eating kind a relatively new phenomenon.

That's because being moderately fat used to be a healthy and attractive trait. So the geek stereotype was the opposite of that: the scrawny weakling.

These days being thin is suddenly fashionable, so the stereotype of the geek changed to be the converse of the new desirable trait.

Neither of these has anything to do with actual changes in geeks' or non-geeks' bodies. Just the whims of fashion.

perhaps

[n3tcat]

... the body thinks that due to the mental taxation, that the overall body has been taxed in the same way, and therefore is tricked into expecting that the body will require food. maybe when the body exercises or performs physically intensive tasks, it creates the same signals in the brain that thinking hard does. I didn't have time to RTFA so maybe they said that already.

Weight a minute!

[Wowsers]

I am a _little_ from ideal weight because sometimes coding is mentally exhaustive that I don't feel like doing exercise. However, when stuck into a particular computer task which I want to get out of the way, I don't feel like eating and don't miss food, just need to have a (non soft drink) drink.

consistent

[leomekenkamp]

Seems consistent with what I found happened to my body when I changed my eating habits. I now eat only fruit in the morning and after that I eat bread, but only when I feel a bit hungry. As soon as the hunger is over I stop eating. I do not get my 3 meals a day, it is more like 5 or 6 very small meals and one regular one for diner. I now fit the same jeans as 19 years ago (501, 31" / 34") and I feel better during the day; no more cravings.

I have got a hunch that eating small meals keeps one's insulin and glucose levels more constant than eating big meals.

Re:consistent

[StarfishOne]

"I have got a hunch that eating small meals keeps one's insulin and glucose levels more constant than eating big meals."

Not to state that you have it, but it sounds like the eating pattern (many small vs. fewer big meals) is fairly similar to what is recommended for people who have hypoglycemia.

Re:consistent

[Kirkoff]

That diet is actually the eating pattern that doctors recommend to most patients in general if they can possibly do it. By eating many small meals, you will generally eat the same amount of calories (give or take) but your metabolism will be much higher. If you eat 20% more calories with that kind of diet, you will probably still lose weight.

It is just hard to get in to the habit without over eating.

"I think, therefore I'm fat."

[bugeaterr]

"I think, therefore I'm fat."

And whenever I'm at a restaurant, I order a la Descartes.

Re:"I think, therefore I'm fat."

[Kuroji]

Des Cartes walks into a bar and orders himself a drink. The bartender says to him, "Do you want a refill?" Des Cartes replies, "I think not." And he disappears into a puff of smoke.

I knew it

[dancingmad]

I'm not fat, I'm just smart.

Re:Yo Mama So Fat...

[Nymz]

'Yo momma so fat she got a Nobel prize for thinking so hard'

Yo mama so fat she can verify the latest Mersenne prime number just by thinking about it.

So if I understand this right...

[ignavus]

So if I understand this right and thinking people put on weight, then thoughtless people should lose weight.

I'll go around being rude to other people and when they complain, I will tell them it is my special thoughtless diet.

The good news is, I didn't have to think very hard to work this one out. I can feel those pounds coming off already!

Thinking USA?

[forestbrooke]

So, FDA estimates that soon 40% of US will be thinking hard?! (http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/trend/maps/ )

Anecdotal evidence...

[GrahamCox]

I know then when I'm really working on challenging programming, I get hungry - very hungry. But when I'm just doing routine stuff that isn't all that taxing I don't. So that would tend to suggest that "hard thinking" requires more fuel. I snack a lot when I'm coding - calorie-wise it must be heading for the 3000-4000 a day mark and some of it's non-too healthy. Yeah, yeah, just another morbidly obese coder you may be thinking. Well, no. I weigh 70kg and always have and probably always will. No matter what I do my weight is a constant. At 6ft tall that makes me pretty skinny. I seem to have a gene for some sort of metabolic homoeostasis - if I eat a lot more, it just speeds up to compensate and vice versa, so my weight stays pinned at 70kg. I have no idea if that's really what's going on but my siblings are the same.

Re:SHENANIGANS!

[ThePhilips]

Since when IT became "knowledge based work"???

In our company IT is engaged in three major activities: spilling coffee on servers, checking cables and answering "NO" to all questions. None of that requires any "knowledge".

Depends on the person

[Alomex]

taxing mental effort appears to cause people to eat significantly more food, even though it doesn't burn many more calories than sitting around and relaxing.

For the average person mental tasks do not significantly increase the consumption of energy, however there is a correlation between IQ and amount of energy that can be brought to bear. Moreover, thinking dramatically increases the consumption of glucose by the brain, so feeling hungry after thinking might be a reasonable response from the body to request replenishment of basic sugars.

Tiny study

[francisstp]

Don't get too excited over this study. There were only 14 participants, all university students so not even slightly representative of the general population. Maybe for them doing heavy mental work was associated with stress more than it would for a cashier or a janitor, and relaxing was really uncommon. Some might have been there for the free buffet because they are too poor to afford real food, etc. With n = 14 there's just no meaningful conclusion you can reach.

Re:Tiny study

[ColdWetDog]

With n = 14 there's just no meaningful conclusion you can reach.

Wrong. You can state that "more research is needed". Then you write a new grant with n=20. In a decade or so, after a dozen papers, you might approach something like statistical significance. Then you can retire.

Re:SHENANIGANS!

[ColdWetDog]

answering "NO" to all questions.

You do realize that IT encompasses more than just Dell 'technical' support, do you not?

And that explains why Frys...

[Abies Bracteata]

...sells more junk food than your average supermarket!

Re:Big_Fat_bullshit!

[V!NCENT]

Coca Cola Zero is only 'unhealthy' when you drink about 2L of it in a day. Sweeteners cause diarrhea, but that's all.

Mind the tea too. Take bastard sugar instead of regular sugar. Normal sugar makes your insulin levels rise, which is going to result in more fat, but it takes two hours for the insulin to disappear, so you'll get hungry for more sugar, so your insulin levels are rising higher and higher, making you even more hungry for sugar, etc, etc. That is where the "Once I start eating [sugar food] I just can't stop" comes from. Bastard sugar stays in your blood for allmost the entire day, so you aren't getting even more hungry.
But that's not all... When you are drinking sugar than your kidney gets 'upset' from all the sugar and wants it 'cleaned', which means you'll get thirsty so you can 'wash it away' with water. But instead of drinking water, most people drink sugarwater (soda or tea with regular sugar), etc, etc.