Avoid that postlunch sugar coma
Do you feel sluggish after eating sugar or a big meal? If yes, you are probably feeling the effects of what is termed as a sugar crash, also called a sugar coma, which may slow down your brain function, a study has suggested.
In a study, participants demonstrated reduced attention and response times after consuming glucose or table sugar, compared to those who consumed fructose (fruit sugar) or artificial sweetener sucralose (the placebo). Those who had fasted for 10 hours before the study experienced an even larger effect.
“Our study suggests that sugar coma – with regards to glucose – is indeed a real phenomenon, where levels of attention decline after the consumption of glucose-containing sugar,” Mei Peng, a lecturer at the University of Otago in New Zealand, says.
“Sugar consumption might change the way our brains work. In the case of sweetness perception, we have evolved to favour this taste,” said Peng.
Previous research on glucose ingestion has linked it to improved memory performance. However, studies that examined the effect of glucose on other cognitive processes have led to mixed results.
In the latest study published in the journal Physiology and Behavior, 49 individuals consumed sweetened drinks containing either glucose, sucrose, fructose, or sucralose before completing three cognitive tests. The tests consisted of a simple response time task and a measurement of arithmetic processing. The researchers also measured the blood glucose levels of the participants during the test.
The study found that participants who had consumed glucose or sucrose tended to perform worse on the cognitive tests than those who had consumed fructose or sucralose.