Before Eating, Think About It

The journal Psychosomatic Medicine has published a study that shows how intellectual work actually makes you hungry. A group of students was asked to complete a series of mental tests, after which they were presented with an all-you-can-eat buffet. On average, the group ate more after thinking than after simply sitting and relaxing:

Each session of intellectual work required the burning of only three more calories than relaxing did. But when the students hit the buffet table after the text summation, they took in an additional 203 calories. And after the memory and attention tests, the subjects consumed another 253 calories. Blood samples taken before, during and after the activities found that all that thinking causes big fluctuations in glucose and insulin levels. And because glucose fuels the neurons, a transitory low level in the brain may signal the stomach to get the hands to fill up the mouth, even though the energy actually spent has gone up just a hair. The researchers note that such “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.”

Intellectual work makes you hungry—so that’s why I’m always ready to eat after reading the latest issue of First Things .