sugar suppresses body's stress response

medpagetoday |  Drinking beverages sweetened with sugar suppressed cortisol and the brain's stress responses -- an effect that was lacking for drinks sweetened with aspartame, found a new study.

Researchers looked at how sweetened drinks affected 19 women and found that sucrose consumption was associated with reduced stress-induced cortisol (P=0.024), leading them to believe that the brain is taking cues from sugar consumption and altering the body's normal response to stress. They published their results on April 16 in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 

"This is the first evidence that high sugar – but not aspartame – consumption may relieve stress in humans," said the corresponding author of the study, Kevin Laugero, PhD, at the department of nutrition at University of California Davis. "The concern is psychological or emotional stress could trigger the habitual overconsumption of sugar and amplify sugar's detrimental health effects, including obesity."

The sugar group also had significantly lower nausea (P=0.041), researchers found.