Thinking may make us eat more. Can it get much more depressing than that? Well, it appears that “food for thought” actually has some practical meaning…
A study, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, split 14 college students 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.
Even though the study involved a small sample size, the results were pretty dramatic. The students who did 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 revealed that the intellectual work made glucose levels fluctuate more, possibly because the body demands food to restore glucose, a sugar used as fuel for the brain.
It’s not exactly a license to act like a vacuous blob. This doesn’t actually imply that dumb and lazy people have a better chance of being skinny… even if sometimes we may think that about certain people (wink wink). You need look at the big picture. Even if you happen to consume extra calories, you still are expected to eat healthy foods, and maybe consider a little extra emphasis on exercise to counter that overworked cranium of yours.