We Eat More Under Stress, But It Is Not Tastier

Author: Karen Lennox Time for reading: ~1 minutes Last Updated: August 08, 2022

In this article, learn more about We Eat More Under Stress, But It Is Not Tastier. Under the influence of stress we tend to eat, drink and bet more..

Stress is considered a major component that contributes to the development of obsessive behavior. Often under its influence people abuse alcohol, consume large amounts of food, etc. in the desire to get a little pleasure.

A new study finds that although stress increases the sense of reward that usually drives the brain to perform these activities, it does not bring satisfaction from the "reward" received.

The study is the work of a research team from the University of Geneva, which creates a stressful situation for some of the participants - students. There is also a control group of participants.

In the experiment, students smell chocolate and then share how pleasant its aroma is. The data show that the stressed participants needed three times more energy to smell the chocolate. There was no difference in the degree of satisfaction that the participants from both groups felt.

The study shows that stress has a significant impact on brain function in terms of satisfaction. The effect on the areas responsible for pleasure is minimal. The team explains that the current study demonstrates these effects of stress in humans for the first time . So far, laboratory studies on the topic have been conducted, the results of which are similar.

Researchers are planning additional studies to reveal the effects of stress in terms of increased desire to consume food, alcohol and more.

The data from the study are published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition .

We Eat More Under Stress, But It Is Not Tastier

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