Did you know that there’s some grains of truth behind the concept of brain food? Research at Laval University in Canada demonstrates that intellectual tasks such as summarizing a text or completing computerized attention tasks can lead to fluctuations in glucose levels and increased eating. Though the sample size was small, students involved in the study were asked to do ‘thinking’ exercises (the summarizing or computer task) or ‘non-thinking’ exercises (resting).

Physically, the students in the summarization and computer tasks only burned three calories more than the students in the rest position. But after analyzing their physiological markers, the researchers found that they had a significantly greater amount of fluctuations in their glucose levels. When presented with food after the exercises, students in the computer group consumed about 250 more calories than the ‘rest’ group. Students in the reading and summarizing group consumed about 200 more calories than the ‘rest’ group. Investigators believe the urge to eat may be accounted for by the glucose fluctuations.

Though it’s too early to say for sure, study investigators are speculating that this could account for at least part of America’s massive weight problem. As more and more of our jobs shift to sedentary positions and more people pursue higher levels of education, more Americans are taking intellectually challenging positions and decreasing physical activity levels. What do you all think about this? Could this be a contributor to America’s expanding waistline? After a long day of office work, do you want to eat? Or do you think that this is just a case of too small a sample size, and the research is off base?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 25th, 2008 at 5:54 am and is filed under Health, Nutrition.