Break the calorie curse of the cubicle

Jennifer Sygo, Postmedia News 

Break the calorie curse of the cubicle

While these studies represent a fairly new body of research, the results suggest it’s time to pay closer attention to the impact of mental work on our eating habits.

Valueline / Thinkstock


Does working make us fat? Sure, vigorously typing emails does not exactly qualify as exercise, but can knowledge-based work itself somehow increase our chances of gaining weight? There is new evidence to suggest that it could.

According to a pair of studies conducted by Canadian researchers Dr. Jean-Philippe Chaput and Dr. Angelo Tremblay, the stress caused by meeting a deadline may not just affect the food we eat, but also the way we perceive our choices. In a study published in the journal Physiology and Behaviour, Chaput and Tremblay asked a group of 15 women to read an excerpt of text, then gave them a 45-minute deadline to draft a response by computer. Once the task was completed, the women were offered free access to a buffet lunch. The control group, by comparison, were asked to sit quietly for 45 minutes, and then offered the same buffet.

The results were intriguing: The group who performed the computer work consumed an extra 230 calories at lunch vs. the control group who spent their time navel-gazing. What’s more, food logs kept by both groups indicated that the computer workers did not compensate by eating any less over the rest of the day.

Equally interesting were the mental and physical changes experienced by the experimental group. While the women who performed the mental work had higher circulating levels of cortisol, a hormone that is produced during periods of stress, they actually reported feeling no more stressed than the control group. And while there is some evidence cortisol can trigger food cravings, analysis of the lunch choices made by both groups indicated that the computer users simply ate more of everything, not just the fatty or carbohydrate-rich foods that we tend to crave when we’re stressed. In other words, while meeting the deadline triggered a stress-like physiological response, the subjects didn’t seem to register the stress, nor did they realize they were overeating.

A followup study found that women who engaged in similar knowledge-based work (in this case, either a 45-minute drafted response or a battery of computer tests) not only ate more at lunch compared with controls, but also saw their blood sugar levels fluctuate more significantly during the work period than the controls did. The authors suggest this shift in blood sugar might partially explain why the subjects were prone to overeating, since our brain relies on glucose to function. Put another way, much like an athlete needs to refuel after a heavy workout, it’s possible our brains seek extra food to help stabilize glucose levels after being put to work.

While these studies represent a fairly new body of research, the results suggest it’s time to pay closer attention to the impact of mental work on our eating habits. But until the day our bosses tell us to quit working so darn hard, here are a few tips to help you when deadlines loom:

1. If you know you’re prone to snacking around deadline time, try to keep tempting food out of reach (obvious, I know, but the point is to actually do it). There is ample evidence that out of sight really does mean out of mind, so keeping the leftover Halloween candy away from your desk when you’re under pressure makes good sense.

2. Try to keep healthy snacks handy, partially to keep you from choosing the lower quality stuff, but also to help keep your blood sugar levels stable when you can’t take a break. Whole fruit, nuts and individual packages of yogourt, cottage cheese or even mini containers of tuna can be eaten without much mess, and will keep your energy even and your appetite at bay.

3. It can be tough, but if at all possible, try to get away from your computer when it’s time to eat. Not only will that force you to get up and out of your seat, but you’ll break the cycle of mindless eating that inevitably occurs when you eat your lunch while checking email.

4. Finally, since the women in the study ate most when given free access to a buffet after meeting a deadline, try to keep yourself out of these eating situations, especially during periods of stress. If you plan to hit the food court after finishing a project, try to automate your choice, rather than wandering aimlessly: It might seem boring, but the same soup-and-sandwich or chicken salad you had yesterday is a safe bet.

Jennifer Sygo is a registered dietitian at Cleveland Clinic Canada, which offers executive physicals, sports medicine and wellness counselling in Toronto.

