Tell it to my crock pot full of pork roast.
by CarolineTony linked me to this New York Times story about willpower as a limited resource with many potential outlets.
“Most cognitive functions are unaffected by minor blood sugar fluctuations over the course of a day, but planning and self-control are sensitive to such small changes. Exerting self-control lowers blood sugar, which reduces the capacity for further self-control. People who drink a glass of lemonade between completing one task requiring self-control and beginning a second one perform equally well on both tasks, while people who drink sugarless diet lemonade make more errors on the second task than on the first.”
I think about this often — at work I sometimes don’t eat breakfast (I know, bad) but in those cases have a cup of juice or some soymilk or something to get my blood sugar going, which I previously thought was probably (mostly) psychological. Sugar-free foods, especially the ones that are high in fat, always make me feel sluggish and unsatisfied. That’s not to say I don’t knock back a number of diet sodas in your average week.
The low-calorie food that fascinates me most is Quaker’s new Mini Delights, which come individually packaged in 90-calorie quantities. Each serving, at least of most of the flavors, has 15% of your daily allotment of saturated fat. Yikes. This might be the epitome of calorie blinders — as long as a food fits into the daily quota, its particulars go unnoticed.
Then again, if this self-denial willpower idea holds, then those three grams of saturated fat may prevent a whole world of hurt in the bottom of an Entemann’s box later.
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