Thinking Makes You Eat More

I knew this from personal experience for quite a well, but now it's official - thinking makes us pig out. According to a study that sheds new light on brain food, intellectual activities make people eat more than when just resting.

Researchers split 14 university student volunteers into three groups for a 45-minute session of either relaxing in a sitting position, reading and summarizing a text, or completing a series of memory, attention, and vigilance tests on the computer. Story continues below ?advertisement The scientists had determined beforehand that the thinking sessions consumed only three calories more than resting. After the sessions, the participants were invited to eat as much as they pleased. Though the study involved a very small number of participants, the results were stark. The students who had done the computer tests downed 253 more calories, or 29.4 percent more than the couch potatoes. Those who had summarized a text consumed 203 more calories than the resting group. Blood samples taken before, during, and after revealed that intellectual work causes much bigger fluctuations in glucose levels than rest periods, perhaps owing to the stress of thinking.

Why do we do this? Glucose is converted by the body from carbohydrates and is supplied to the brain via the bloodstream. The brain cannot make glucose and so needs a constant supply. Brain cells need twice as much energy as other cells in the body. But remember, you must exercise to balance your caloric intake. Thinking only burns a few extra calories (even though you need more glucose), so exercising to burn off the additional consumed calories is important.