Why are we going to die” for candy when we're stressed out?

When under acute stress, the brain requires about 12 percent more energy, causing many to consume more sugar foods.

Carbohydrate provide the body with a faster energy source. In fact, in various cognitive tests, subjects who were stressed got weaker before eating. Meanwhile, high productivity returns to normal after food consumption.

When we're hungry, an entire network of regions in the brain is activated. The center is the hypotalamus ventromedial (VMH), and the hypothalamus lateral. These two regions in the upper part of the brain are involved in regulating metabolic, treating food, and digestive functions.

However, there is a <x1->roguer” above, the nucleus archuatus (ARH) in the hypotalamus. If it records that the brain itself has no glucose, this “er” blocks information from the rest of the body. That's why we immediately look to carbohydrates whenever the brain shows a need for energy, even if the rest of the body is well supplied.

To further understand the relationship between the brain and the carbs, we have examined 40 people during two sessions. In the first place, we asked the students to give a 10-minute talk to some strangers about them. At the next session, they were not asked to give a speech.

At the end of each session, we measured the concentrations of stress hormones, cortisol, and adrenaline in the blood of participants. We also gave volunteers in this study the opportunity to feed for an hour. When participants gave a pre - meal talk, they were more stressed and consumed on average 34 grams of carbs than when they did not give a talk.

What, then, about chocolate? If a person wants to eat chocolate in the afternoon, I advise him to eat chocolate to stay in shape and keep his mood up. Because at work people get stressed out often, the brain needs energy.

If someone doesn't eat anything, it's likely that the brain will take it from the glucose body, which was previously destined for the production of fat and muscle cells, and will become more stress hormones. This may increase over the long term, the risk of heart attacks, strokes, or depression.

Or the brain may go to other functions, but it reduces concentration and performance. To satisfy the increased needs of the brain, anyone can eat more of anything, as did the stressed subjects in our experiment, or make it easier for the body and simply consume sweet foods.

Even babies have a strong preference for sweets. Because their brains are extremely large - compared with their small bodies - babies require much energy. And they take that energy through breast milk, which contains a lot of sugar.

In time, our preference for desserts diminishes but never disappears completely - even when we grow up. The degree to which this preference is preserved differs from person to person, and it seems to depend, among other things, on living conditions.

Studies suggest that people who experience much stress in childhood have a stronger preference for candy later in life. For some, the brain cannot take its energy from the body reserve, even if it has enough fat deposits, the world writes.al. The most important reason for this is chronic stress.

To ensure that their brains are not sub-furnized, these people must always eat enough. Often, the only way to separate himself from such eating habits is to withdraw from a constantly stressful environment.

Thus, while many tend to be harsh with themselves because they consume a lot of candy or carbs, the reasons behind this mania are not always due to lack of self - control, and they may seek a deeper study of life - style, past difficult situations, and present.

Once the root cause of stress is addressed, problems in eating habits can also be found final.