Your Sweet Tooth Might Be Habit Keeping Your Body on High Alert

Sweet Stuff: That “little treat” you sometimes get for yourself, like a post-hike ice cream or a matcha latte after yoga class, might be working against your attempts to relax. This finding, highlighted in new research published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology, is something worth considering next time you set aside time to decompress.

The Study: Researchers recruited 94 healthy adults and asked them to fast before arriving at the lab. Some of them then drank a glucose solution, while others drank plain water. Following that, half received a standardized shoulder massage while the other half rested. In the water group, massage and rest proved to be calming. But in the glucose group, nervous system activity stayed elevated even mid-massage.

The Takeaway: Feeling relaxed and being physiologically relaxed are not always the same thing. So if you’re planning to spend some time resting and recovering, having something sugary beforehand could (somewhat) sabotage your efforts.

Keep in Mind: This was a controlled lab study that administered a concentrated glucose drink to young and healthy participants. So the findings might not be replicable when applied to everyday eating habits within the entire population.