Food for Thought

Chalk one up for coach potatoes. I just saw a headline that said: Thinking Makes Us Pig Out.

According to a article on LiveScience.com, intellectual activities make people eat more than when just resting. This finding might also help explain the obesity epidemic of an increasingly sedentary society in which people still have to think now and then (usually while sitting at their desks fighting the temptations of the community candy jar).

What researchers did was split 14 university student volunteers into three groups for a 45-minute session of either relaxing in a sitting position, reading and summarizing a text, or completing a series of memory, attention, and vigilance tests on the computer.

The scientists had determined beforehand that the thinking sessions consumed only three calories more than resting. After the sessions, the participants were invited to eat as much as they pleased. Keep in mind they only used 14 people to test this, BUT... here are the results: the students who had done the computer tests downed 253 more calories, or 29.4 percent more than the couch potatoes. Those who had summarized a text consumed 203 more calories than the resting group.

So the grand scientific conclusion: My next weight-loss program will be called "The Grey's Anatomy Diet." There's usually too much blood and guts for me to have an appetite during the show anyway, so perhaps we could even market this as an "advanced" diet plan. Throw in some McSteamed vegetables and tasty McDreamsicles and we have the perfect anti-stress, anti-thinking McDiet. Seriously.