[ExI] Thinking causes weight gain

[Jef Allbright]

Aha!  ;-)

- Jef


This just in: Thinking causes weight gain | Machines Like
Us<http://machineslikeus.com/news/thinking-causes-weight-gain>

A Université Laval research team has demonstrated that intellectual work
induces a substantial increase in calorie intake. The details of this
discovery, which could go some way to explaining the current obesity
epidemic, are published in the most recent issue of *Psychosomatic Medicine*
.

The research team, supervised by Dr. Angelo Tremblay, measured the
spontaneous food intake of 14 students after each of three tasks: relaxing
in a sitting position, reading and summarizing a text, and completing a
series of memory, attention, and vigilance tests on the computer. After 45
minutes at each activity, participants were invited to eat as much as they
wanted from a buffet.

The researchers had already shown that each session of intellectual work
requires only three calories more than the rest period. However, despite the
low energy cost of mental work, the students spontaneously consumed 203 more
calories after summarizing a text and 253 more calories after the computer
tests. This represents a 23.6% and 29.4 % increase, respectively, compared
with the rest period.

Blood samples taken before, during, and after each session revealed that
intellectual work causes much bigger fluctuations in glucose and insulin
levels than rest periods. "These fluctuations may be caused by the stress of
intellectual work, or also reflect a biological adaptation during glucose
combustion," hypothesized Jean-Philippe Chaput, the study's main author. The
body could be reacting to these fluctuations by spurring food intake in
order to restore its glucose balance, the only fuel used by the brain.

"Caloric overcompensation following intellectual work, combined with the
fact that we are less physically active when doing intellectual tasks, could
contribute to the obesity epidemic currently observed in industrialized
countries," said Mr. Chaput. "This is a factor that should not be ignored,
considering that more and more people hold jobs of an intellectual nature,"
the researcher concluded.

Université Laval <http://www.ulaval.ca/>
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