Members in the Media
From: The Globe and Mail

Willpower’s secret weapon? Sugar

The Globe and Mail:

If you’ve adopted some challenging New Year’s resolutions, a spot of sugar may be just the thing to keep you on track. Yes, even you dieters.

Social psychologist Roy Baumeister of Florida State University shared the unusual tip in his recent book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.

Willpower, it turns out, is a mental resource that becomes depleted through the day. In the case of dieting, a calorie-counter may find it easy to avoid fattening foods in the morning, but after a day of tough choices, it’s increasingly likely that she will break down and reach for forbidden foods by bedtime.

But a hit of glucose appears to renew a person’s ability to control those impulses – an especially handy trick for the season’s nouveau non-smokers, dieters and exercisers.

Read the whole story: The Globe and Mail

See Roy Baumeister at the 24th APS Annual Convention: Society for the Teaching of Psychology Talk and Invited Symposium

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