Latest / Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor / Wisdom Wednesdays: Science uncovers why chocolate, chips, wine and beer are more tempting after a hard day's work - and what to do about it.

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Wisdom Wednesdays: Science uncovers why chocolate, chips, wine and beer are more tempting after a hard day's work - and what to do about it. · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. Today.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Let's dive into something and I think that all of
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  Speaker 1: us can relate to, or at least many of us.
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  Speaker 1: Is that intense creating for comfort foods, a glass or
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  Speaker 1: two of wine or a couple of beers after a
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  Speaker 1: hard day's work, or following a tough mental task, or
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  Speaker 1: even a trying interaction with some complete mappet Well, it
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  Speaker 1: turns out that it's not just in your head. There's
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  Speaker 1: actually science behind why this happens. So we've long believed
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  Speaker 1: that exerting cognitive effort, essentially intense thinking, leaves us more
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  Speaker 1: prone to unhealthy choices, and there's a heape of research
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  Speaker 1: to back that up. And it was often explained as
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  Speaker 1: a weakening of our will pawer or our self control,
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  Speaker 1: and that by using cognitive effort we basically use up
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  Speaker 1: those self control resources. However, recent research by a researcher
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  Speaker 1: called Marcello Salinas and colleagues that's just been published in
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  Speaker 1: the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences adds another
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  Speaker 1: fascinating layer to the story. They suggest that cognitive fatigue
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  Speaker 1: may actually increase our perception of rewards. In simple terms,
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  Speaker 1: when we're mentally exhausted, those treats actually feel more tempting
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  Speaker 1: in our brains or even tastier than they would otherwise.
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  Speaker 1: Now here's where it gets really interesting. They ran studies
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  Speaker 1: involving both rats and humans, and the research has discovered
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  Speaker 1: that cognitive efforts makes these rewards, like unhealthy foods or
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  Speaker 1: drugs in the case of rats, seem more desirable. So
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  Speaker 1: let's break it down a little bit. What they did
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  Speaker 1: in the rat study was they had a bunch of
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  Speaker 1: rats who had on limited access to cocaine, and some
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  Speaker 1: of them were given a cognitively demanding task, and then
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  Speaker 1: when they completed that task, they actually self administered more
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  Speaker 1: cocaine than those rats who didn't have to exert themselves mentally.
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  Speaker 1: But when the rats did the same cognitively demanding task
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  Speaker 1: and then they were given a rest period of a
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  Speaker 1: couple of hours, they actually self administered a lot less
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  Speaker 1: cocaine than when they did the task and then had
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity to have the cocaine straight away. So it
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  Speaker 1: suggests that actually taking time to recover from those real
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  Speaker 1: strong mental efforts actually then reduced the value of the reward.
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  Speaker 1: In the brain, and this suggests that mental exertion can
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  Speaker 1: actually prime the brain to seek out more intense rewards
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  Speaker 1: or to chase those rewards harder. And then they did
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  Speaker 1: some human studies, but they didn't actually give them unlimited
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  Speaker 1: access to cocaine, but they faced a different type of challenge.
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  Speaker 1: In one experiment, the participants were asked to suppress a
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  Speaker 1: specific thought, so a white burr, of all things, and
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  Speaker 1: they were saying, don't think about a white bird. Don't
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  Speaker 1: think about a white burr, while they were listing other thoughts,
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  Speaker 1: and that's an exercise that requires substantial mental effort. And
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  Speaker 1: afterwards they were given access to potato chips synsteatic cocaine,
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  Speaker 1: and these participants not only more chips, but actually rated
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  Speaker 1: those chips as tastier than the control group who hadn't
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  Speaker 1: been through the mental ringer. So this finding really does
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  Speaker 1: then back up the rat study and hints that cognitive
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  Speaker 1: fatigue not only increases our urge to snack, but also
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  Speaker 1: makes those snacks feel more satisfying, and that can be
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  Speaker 1: expanded out to other rewards. So it's not just that
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  Speaker 1: we use up our self control mechanisms, but there seems
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  Speaker 1: to be an independent and synergistic effect in the brain
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  Speaker 1: of actually placing more value or what we call emotional salience,
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  Speaker 1: on those rewards and rating them as better. So, the
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  Speaker 1: researchers did think about whether this effect could be simply
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  Speaker 1: due to an increased tendency to make extreme judgments after
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  Speaker 1: tough mental tasks, and they conducted a follow up test
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  Speaker 1: using both easy and difficult writing tasks. Interesting the study
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  Speaker 1: showed that while people rated chocolate more favorably after cognitive effort,
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  Speaker 1: their ratings for unrelated items such as the length of
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  Speaker 1: the pen or the brightness of a post it actually
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  Speaker 1: remained unchanged, and this then helped to strengthen their idea
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  Speaker 1: that the mental effort was really just amplifying the value
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  Speaker 1: of rewards and not all judgments across the board. That
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  Speaker 1: this effect has been seen in both rats and humans,
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  Speaker 1: it seems to be that it's cross species thing, and
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  Speaker 1: there may be an evolutionary reason to it. So why
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  Speaker 1: why is that so? One intriguing theory proposed by the
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  Speaker 1: researchers is that this might be not just a mere
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  Speaker 1: byproduct of evolution, but it could This tendency to desire
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  Speaker 1: stronger rewards after mental fatigue could have an adaptive purpose,
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  Speaker 1: So think about it. After a hard day of solving
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  Speaker 1: problems or strategizing for survival, early humans might have benefited
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  Speaker 1: from a stronger urge to consume calorie dense foods for
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  Speaker 1: replenishing their energy reserves. And that's that driver to actually
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  Speaker 1: restore the energy reserves so that they are able to
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  Speaker 1: do stuff the next day. And this mechanism could also
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  Speaker 1: explain why the animals exhibit similar behaviors. So the perception
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  Speaker 1: of a greater reward after effort might have once provided
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  Speaker 1: an evolutionary advantage in pushing us to refuel effectively when
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  Speaker 1: resources were actually available. However, in the modern world of
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  Speaker 1: and you know I've written about this in Death by Comfort.
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  Speaker 1: In this modern world of easy access to high calorie,
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  Speaker 1: low nutrient intensity foods, this ancient drive appears to be backfiring,
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  Speaker 1: leading us to unhealthy eating patterns, drinking, and drug taking,
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  Speaker 1: particularly when we've been stressed or been through a hard
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  Speaker 1: day's work. So it explains a lot of those real,
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  Speaker 1: strong desires that many of us have. Now, this research
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  Speaker 1: not only sheds light on our behavior after a demanding day,
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  Speaker 1: but it also offers new potential avenues for managing addiction
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  Speaker 1: and unhealthy habits. Understanding that our creating for rewards intensifies
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  Speaker 1: with mental fatigue could help us devise better strategies to
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  Speaker 1: avoid these temptations, and that can be things like having
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  Speaker 1: healthier alternatives on hand. We know, for instance, that you're
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  Speaker 1: much more likely to eat the first thing you see
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  Speaker 1: in your larder or your fridge, So putting those healthier
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  Speaker 1: snacks right up front and making it hard to actually
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  Speaker 1: access the unhealthy stuff by not having it in a
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  Speaker 1: house or not keeping alcohol in the house is one
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  Speaker 1: way that can help us to not self sabotage. But
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  Speaker 1: it's also thinking about strategies to just delay stuff as well.
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  Speaker 1: Because remember when the rats were given a period to recover,
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  Speaker 1: they didn't have as much cocaine, And I remember that
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  Speaker 1: just sparks into my mind and me and mine. Gary
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  Speaker 1: Davis who said that he had this six o'clock was
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  Speaker 1: wine o'clock, and it was just this automatic, like Pablovian
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  Speaker 1: response that went in his brain. So he actually decided
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  Speaker 1: that six o'clock to go and do a short workout
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  Speaker 1: and actually then found that it had a big impact
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  Speaker 1: on his drinking. So just trying to break that cycle.
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  Speaker 1: So there's probably a combination of things that we can
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  Speaker 1: do in that making those rewards harder to access, particularly
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  Speaker 1: when we've come home from a hard day's work, or
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  Speaker 1: not having them around you at work, not having them
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  Speaker 1: on your desk, but also things like just going out
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  Speaker 1: for a walk at lunchtime or whenever you come home,
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  Speaker 1: or doing a short workout, whether it's jumping in the sauna,
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  Speaker 1: reading a book, phoning a friend, just anything that's going
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  Speaker 1: to create a bit of a time wedge between you
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  Speaker 1: and the access to these unhealthy behaviors might be a
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  Speaker 1: useful strategy. So that's it for this week, folks. Hope
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  Speaker 1: you find that useful. Catch you next time.