Have Some Sugar, Study Says

For most people, self-indulgence and impulsive behavior go hand-in-hand but interestingly, it’s the opposite (deprivation) that really causes one to act on his or her impulses, only to look back and regret going forward.

No, this is not some monologue based on mysticism but these conclusions have been drawn based on a study that was recently published in the journal, Psychological Science. Researchers from the University of South Dakota provided a set of question to 65 students in which they had to decide whether they would choose a smaller sum of money ‘tomorrow’ or a larger sum in the future.

The only twist, however, is that half the students were requested to answer the question with an empty stomach while the other half were given a caffeine-free soda that contained sugar or the artificial sweetener, aspartame. As a part of the experiment, blood glucose levels were measured at the beginning of the experiment and after the volunteers drank the soda.

“Within 10 minutes of drinking a sugary soda, participants’ interest in a larger, future reward was higher,” said Xiao-Tian Wang, one of the psychological scientists who conducted the study. This experiment, he said, explored the link between glucose levels in the body and eating behavior but also decision-making.

The results of the experiment showed that people who consumed the soda were less likely to make a hasty choice as compared to those who had an empty stomach, or even more surprisingly, those who consumed a diet soda.

The obvious conclusion to which was that in giving the body a ‘diet soda’, the body feels that there is an ‘energy crisis’, and so it grabs everything that is available immediately, thus increasing the chances of being impulsive.