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 :)

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

[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.

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.

"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!

And that explains why Frys...

[Abies Bracteata]

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