The ability to taste sugar is seriously compromised following a stress full moment. Could this lack of sweet relief be the reason for the empty packet ?

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Stress really is the reason you ate the whole packet

The ability to taste sugar is seriously compromised following a stress full moment. Could this lack of sweet relief be the reason for the empty packet ?

You have to do something DIFFICULT. It may be a phone call, a presentation, a mathematical calculation. The task is difficult, not life threatening……..

Doing it will elicit a minor stress response.

Everyday stress

The stressful moment…….will bring a slight rise in your heart rate, accompanied by a minor bump in your blood pressure. Nothing to raise the alarm bells of your doctor, but a sign, that the alarm bell in the body has been tinkled.

The response to the tinkle – a squirt of cortisol.

When the moment is over – you reach for some sustenance. A bite of something, usually something sweet.

Too many bites

The just one bite….. quickly turns into a feeding frenzy. When you come to your senses……. you’ve eaten a whole lot of EXTRA calories. And those extra calories, end up taking up residence. Ouch !

Why do stressful moments cause you to load up on extra bites ?

Bites with less bite

Researchers from Minnesota University have discovered something about bites taken following stressful moments.

The bites taste different.

A series of taste tests revealed, that nothing tastes quite the same immediately after, a stressful moment…..

A few stress FULL moments

38 healthy volunteers, a mix of men and women in their early twenties, performed taste tests, on two separate occasions.

One occasion was STRESSFUL, the other stress free low.

The team used three different strategies to create stress in the laboratory. The moments the team created, only lasted 8 minutes.

The volunteers either had to

Give a presentation
Do a mathematical calculation or
Stick their hand in a bucket of ice cold water (this is physiologically stressful).

The team confirmed that the activities had evoked a stress response in each participant by measuring their response. Moods, heart rates, blood pressure and cortisol levels, confirmed the 8 minute “ordeals”, had indeed been, stressful moments.

Stress messes with your taste sensations

The tinkling of the stress alarm, changed the participants taste perceptions. Sweet, savoury and salty tastes were all impeded. Of the three tastes that had been altered, sweet was the one that took the biggest dive in sensitivity.

The only taste that emerged from the stressful moment unaltered, was sour.

Sour was still sour.

The upshot of this………….. that bite you’re biting into, in response to a stressful moment, no longer tastes the way you expect it to.

Could this be the reason you eat more ?

You’ve got to manage the stress

The key to health……

Eat less cakes & cookies !

Sounds so simple, so why is it so hard to do ? Changes in taste perceptions may be the reason you’re eating more.

So how can you fix it ?

The obvious thing to do – find non-edible ways to manage your stress. Stress really could be making you put on weight.

PS. You may also want to get your full blast of sweet, through a little strategic gargling.

Exposure to Acute Stress is Associated with Attenuated Sweet Taste. Psychophysiology (2012) 49(1): 96–103. Mustafa al’Absi, Motohiro Nakajima, Stephanie Hooker, Larry Wittmers, and Tiffany Cragin.