E-Magazine: Does School Affect Our Nutrition?

Does School Affect Our Nutrition?

Picture this: it’s a late study night, and you have a lot of homework to do. You declare that it’s time for a snack, so you get up and go into the kitchen. What kind of food do you reach for? Believe it or not, the amount of work we have to do actually affects the food that we decide to eat.

Stanford professor Baba Shiv demonstrated this in a study he conducted on decision making. In this study, 165 undergraduate students were divided into two groups, and each group was given a number. The first group to go had to walk to a room in a hallway, and here the participants in this group were given a two-digit number to memorize. Their job was to walk down the hallway one-by-one and in a second room recite the number given to them. Before they were able to reach the second room, though, the participants came across a table of refreshments, offered to them as a “thank you” for their participation. The two refreshments offered were chocolate cake and fruit salad, and they were instructed to choose one of the options to enjoy. Once this first group had completed their task, the second group went. However, instead of a two-digit number to memorize and recite, the second group was given a seven-digit number, which would occupy the brain more. In the end, the goal of the study was not to see if the students could recite the numbers; it was to see what they would choose as their refreshment. 

Interestingly, there was a common trend between the two groups. Results showed that the group instructed to memorize and recite the two-digit number was more likely to choose the fruit salad as a refreshment, whereas the group instructed to memorize and recite the seven-digit number was more likely to choose the chocolate cake as a refreshment. Why is this so?

The results of Shiv’s experiment display an important term in psychology known as cognitive load: the amount of information that working memory can hold at one time. Our working memory has a limited capacity, meaning that we can only hold so many things in our memory at once. When we have a lot of information and work, this memory is affected. When the brain is given many items at once to memorize, the part of it that is responsible for making rational decisions becomes occupied with managing the memory. Because the rational part of the brain is busy, the part of the brain responsible for emotion takes over the decision making. This is often why people may become angry easier in debates- their brains become occupied with finding dates, statistics and other information, so the emotional side is in control for a while. This is also why when we are busy with school, we find ourselves more likely to eat more and unhealthier, showing how school may actually affect our nutrition. Our brains are too busy working for us- there’s no room to think about what we eat!

Our brain is a very vital part of our body, and it is crucial that we take care of it and make sure not to overload. To avoid overloading it, we can make sure not to procrastinate and make sure not to take on too much at once. This way, we can work while still being healthy and making safe decisions. It is completely okay to notice that we are eating unhealthy during a stressful time- it’s a natural process! We can just make sure to work to take care of ourselves and learn to appreciate our memory more and more. 

-Nika Shekastehband

https://whywereason.wordpress.com/tag/baba-shiv/