
Does Sugar Help You Focus? - ryan_j_naughton
http://priceonomics.com/does-sugar-help-you-focus/
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meowface
How could they know for sure the artificial sweetener did not adversely affect
focus somehow?

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jkldotio
Yes this is an interesting thought. Something like Aspartame, at least in a
subset of the population, induces headaches. So it's interacting with
something related to the brain in some people at least.

Doing some digging there are some case reports, not studies, of people
suffering migraines from Sucralose (Splenda was used in the study).[0] The
product safety people at McNeil Nutritionals (manufacturers of Splenda) in
reply to these cases pointed out, rightfully in my opinion, that a couple of
cases in millions of exposures is hardly concerning.[1]

However that's just saying it doesn't cause migraines, or on the off-chance it
does nobody has proven it with a proper controlled study. But migraines are
not performance on a Stroop task from the study. There could still be some
interaction between Sucralose, or perhaps artificial sweeteners more
generally, and Stroop task performance.

A more complex study design could nail it down I guess.

[0]
[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1526-4610.2006....](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1526-4610.2006.00543_1.x/full)
[1]
[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1526-4610.2007....](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1526-4610.2007.00983.x/full)

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cbd1984
> Something like Aspartame, at least in a subset of the population, induces
> headaches.

Possibly, probably not:

> Headaches are the most common symptom reported by consumers.[8] While one
> small review noted aspartame is likely one of many dietary triggers of
> migraines, in a list that includes "cheese, chocolate, citrus fruits, hot
> dogs, monosodium glutamate, aspartame, fatty foods, ice cream, caffeine
> withdrawal, and alcoholic drinks, especially red wine and beer,"[66] other
> reviews have noted conflicting studies about headaches[8][67] and still more
> reviews lack any evidence and references to support this claim.[38][41][65]

(Don't make me copy and paste all of the citations. You know I'll do it.)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame)

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jkldotio
You are right to call me out on that it seems. I just looked into it further
and this study[0] seems like pretty good evidence - double blind randomized
crossover study with 48 "sensitive" and 48 control subjects - that there isn't
any significant Aspartame effect.

[0]
[http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0116212)

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cardiffspaceman
The only reason we lose focus --

\-- I know what you're gonna say and I totally agree --

\-- Wait... Shh! The only reason we lose focus is because we accept it as an
inevitability!

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Dowwie
after extensive self-experimentation, I whole heartedly agree with the
findings of this research and highly recommend atomic fireballs prior to any
important programming session

