Despite the low wear of mental energy and work, students who participated in the study consumed 23.6 percent more calories after the intellectual tasks.
The researchers found that the stress of thinking caused great thinkers over more calories.
The research team, supervised by Dr. Angelo Tremblay, measured the spontaneous food intake of 14 students after each of the three tasks.
The first was a relaxation session at the position, the second reading and summarizing a text and finally completing a series of tests on the computer of memory, attention and vigilance.
After 45 minutes on each activity, participants were invited to eat all they wanted from the buffet.
Researchers have discovered that each session of intellectual work requires only three calories more than the rest period.
However, despite the low expenditure of mental energy in the work, the students spontaneously consumed 203 more calories after summarizing a text and 253 more calories after the computer tests.
Jean-Philippe Chaput, lead author of the study, said: “These fluctuations may be caused by stress of intellectual work, or also reflect a biological adaptation during glucose combustion.”
So the body could react to fluctuations stimulate food intake in order to restore its glucose balance, the only fuel used by the brain.
Chaput added, “over-caloric compensation following intellectual work, combined with the fact that they are less physically active when doing intellectual tasks, could contribute to the obesity epidemic currently observed in industrialized countries.
“This is a factor not be overlooked, considering that more and more people hold jobs of an intellectual nature.
Tags: Calories, mental energy, Obesity,
