Stress and Snacking

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A Penn State researcher says stress can mess with women's eating habits, even after the stress is over.

Laura Cousino Klein and her colleagues presented their subjects with a variety of tasks over the course of 25 minutes while randomly blasting them with loud sounds.

After that time was up, the subjects were left alone for 12 minutes with a magazine, some water and a tray of snacks, both fatty and lowfat. Women who were stressed out ate 65 to 70 grams of the fatty snacks during the break, twice as much as women who weren't as frustrated.

But male subjects ate about 40 grams of fatty snacks, regardless of their stress levels. The researchers aren't sure why.