Don't quarrel, eat some sweets!
Low blood sugar leads to marital quarrels
Kirill Stasevich, Compulenta
If spouses often quarrel, then before spending money on a family psychologist, the couple should take a blood sugar test. According to Brad J. Bushman from Ohio State University (USA), the cause of irritability may be a lack of glucose in the body.
Generally speaking, scientists have been paying attention to the relationship between our behavior and glucose levels for a long time: in the 1960s it was noticed that "low sugar" (or even just fluctuations in blood glucose) can provoke aggression. And not so long ago, in 2010, Mr. Bushman and his colleagues tried to identify behavioral features characteristic of patients with type 2 diabetes. At the same time, in another series of experiments, scientists, using a virtual competitive game, analyzed changes in the behavior of players who were given sugary drinks. Based on the results of these two studies, scientists came to the conclusion that glucose really, as they say, softens the character.
However, they decided not to stop there, and in a new article published in PNAS (Low glucose relates to greater aggression in married couples), Mr. Bushman and his colleagues write about the effect of glucose on marital relations. The study involved 107 couples who had to regularly measure both their glucose levels and the level of aggressiveness.
For three weeks, each of the partners measured blood glucose twice a day, before breakfast and before going to bed. In addition, at the end of the day, it was necessary to assess how much he was angry with his partner. The level of aggressiveness was determined in a very peculiar way: each subject had voodoo dolls personifying a partner, and 51 needles for each doll. Every night, while the partner is not looking, needles were stuck into the doll, and their number corresponded to the level of anger.
One of the voodoo dolls used in the experiment (photo by Brad Bushman / Ohio State University).
In addition, after 21 days, all the subjects came to the laboratory, where they were offered to play a computer game in which they could stun their partner with an exceptionally unpleasant sound (a mixture of creaking chalk on a blackboard, ambulance sirens and the buzzing of a dental drill). The character of the sound and its duration were chosen by the players themselves, in accordance with the irritation experienced towards the partner.
When scientists counted all the needles in all the voodoo dolls, assessed the desire of the participants in the experiment to torment partners with an unpleasant sound and compared it all with glucose levels, it turned out that the higher a person's blood sugar level was, the less angry he was with the person he lived with.
The authors of the work believe that it's all about improving self-control: glucose feeds the brain, and it begins to better manage emotions and motivations. In short, if you are not all right with the "weather in the house", try to eat more sweets, maybe everything will get better.
On the other hand, some researchers – for example, David Benton from Swansea University (UK) – are rather skeptical about these conclusions. Glucose is not the only factor influencing behavior: for example, alcohol simultaneously lowers glucose levels and increases aggressiveness, but the study did not take into account which of the subjects drinks and how much. In addition, some sweet foods – say, chocolate – can improve mood not only and not so much because of their sweetness, but also because of other flavors. In general, in order to finally be sure of the benefits of sweets for family life, you need to collect more information about what is eaten in different families – both in those that live in peace, and in those where they constantly quarrel.
Prepared based on the materials of the Ohio State University: Lashing Out at Your Spouse? Check Your Blood Sugar.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru15.04.2014