>> When you increase such “cognitive load” on someone’s frontal cortex, he or she exhibits less self-control on subsequent tasks—just like muscle that’s been exercising hard, then balks at having to move you one step more. <<<p>Everyone cites this as fact when in reality the science behind it is very shaky.<p>See this study from Stanford:
<a href="http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/august/willpower-study-sugar-082713.html" rel="nofollow">http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/august/willpower-study-su...</a>
They should have had a control group that's completely off sugar. Sugar is an addictive substance and affects your psychology in a similar way to other addictive substances. You'd see similar results doing this experiment with smokers and cigarettes instead of sugar for example.
This is well known by bars in many locations that pass out free lollipops and hard candies as closing time approaches. Anecdotally it causes violent altercations to plummet.
This is why I drink a "bulletproof" coffee in the morning at about 7am. Basically, coffee with butter and MCT oil. Then I have a breakfast of poached eggs and bacon at about 9am.<p>My brain and focus is just way better running on fat than on glucose.
It's a little known fact that the brain can also be fueled by ketones by those following a ketogenic diet. Energy is more constant as the body is burning fat continuously instead of depending on constant feeding and the associated ups and downs in blood sugar. Those following a ketogenic diet report improved concentration and alertness.<p>Also, anything that overstimulates the reward system (sugar) will result in weakened willpower.
One of the researchers mentioned in the article, Roy Baumeister, wrote a book that I enjoyed (entitled "Willpower"). He gave a talk about willpower and glucose levels which you can see some of here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vefDeoXCBbk" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vefDeoXCBbk</a><p>It's not a completely pop-science book, more a translation of his research into an approachable lay-person format. I recommend it.<p>(edit - link to book: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Rediscovering-Greatest-Human-Strength-ebook/dp/B0052REQCY" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Rediscovering-Greatest-Human...</a> )
"Each evening participants rated the level of any anger they were feeling toward their spouse."<p>Depressing that this is a useful measurement, that is, the level of anger is > 0 on most evenings.
There are pretty serious problems with the glucose theory right now: <a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/jan/kurzban_et_al_on_opportunity_cost_models_of/" rel="nofollow">http://lesswrong.com/lw/jan/kurzban_et_al_on_opportunity_cos...</a>
It is interesting. Though, as far as I know [1] glucose consumption varies only a little with brain usage. So either this thing is wrong, or nervousness because of lack of glucose has different mechanism that some lobes being hungry.<p>[1] <a href="http://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/839/how-does-the-brains-energy-consumption-depend-on-mental-activity" rel="nofollow">http://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/839/how-does-the-...</a>
I've personally noticed that I get more irritated/angry 4-5hrs after my meal. This is quite evident for me in the morning when I delay my breakfast. Hence I try to time my meals religiously. Though getting irritated/angry doesn't affect my "willpower" as I can still keep my emotions in check and prevent them from ebbing out.<p>Coming back to the experiment, shouldn't the will power be benchmarked before testing for effects of glucose? Hypothetically, couldn't I get a study group of weak-willed people and enforce the WSJ article's premise as well as get a bunch of monks and refute it?
How do get your muscles to look "full" on a keto diet? I'm talking bodybuilding here. I see almost everyone "carbing up" before a show specifically because of this. It also means if you want to follow this sort of diet you'll end up looking flat most of the time unless you leave the keto state.<p>Don't really see the point going low carb if you're lifting weights and calorie counting since you're replacing muscle glycogen all the time, there's not a lot of excess energy to be stored as fat unless you're eating way above maintenance.
"Moreover, during a tough self-control task, circulating glucose levels plummet, consumed by hardworking frontal neurons. And, remarkably, self-control improves if subjects sip sugary drinks during the task (with control subjects consuming sugar-free drinks)."<p>Then is controlling urge to sip sugary drinks a doomed enterprise?
> The largest lesson is that who we are and what we do must always be considered in the context of the biology occurring inside us.<p>This is such a pointless ending sentiment. I realize the irony here too, my comment is pointless transitively but I don't care.
it is good to eat honey or fruit fro your sugar, not table sugar, as table sugar(white death) gets in your blood very quick causing insulin spike, which is bad and bad only, unless you completely deprived of energy like in long distance race.<p>this stupid sensationalist articles designed to glorify consumption of junk food are just pathetic and should not be on top of hacker news...