Bad news for you sugar junkies out there trying to cut down. Drinking a drink sweetened with sugar can reduce the expression of a stress induced hormone, meaning when stressed we may consume more sugar.
Sugar is the new salt, in terms of health campaigns to reduce the amount in our food any way. In a study to be published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism researchers showed that when volunteers were given a drink sweetened with sugar or with an artificial sweetener only the ones given the sugar showed a reduction in the amount of a stress hormone produced.
The researchers are concerned that it may make stressed people more hooked on sugar and therefore “more vulnerable to obesity and its related conditions”.
This experiment looked at table sugar or sucrose, but it would be interesting to know if this effect works for other sugars too, for instance fructose, a sugar found in fruit. Would munching on a handful of grapes have the same effect?