Of course you know that if you hear the sound of an ice cream truck or you smell brownies baking in the oven, you're probably going to want to indulge—you're only human, after all. But a new study from the journal Appetite found that there's another factor that might make you crave the sweet stuff: stress.
For the study, Brazilian researchers tracked 57 women, average age 33, who had taken a test called the Stress Symptoms Inventory Lipp in Adults. Of those women, 31 reported being stressed and 26 reported being stress-free. The test also measured the participants' levels of leptin, a hormone related to appetite, and asked them to report their weight and their level of sugar cravings.
So, what'd the researchers find out? For starters, 77 percent of the stressed-out women reported craving sugar, compared to only 31 percent of the relaxed group. What's more, the stressed group also had a significantly higher waist circumference, as well as higher levels of the hormone leptin.
Now, it's important to note that the findings are associative—meaning stress was linked to sugar cravings in this study, but one doesn't necessarily cause the other. Regardless, researchers believe the stress-sugar connection may ultimately come down to sleep: Stress often causes poor sleep, which in turn can mess with your hormone levels and cause you to crave high-calorie, sugary foods. As for the higher waist circumferences, that may be tied to participants' eating habits or to their higher levels of leptin, which suppresses your body's response to sweet foods. In other words, when your body is flooded with leptin, it isn't as satisfied with sweets—so you end up eating more of them.
To feel more Zen—and hopefully prevent yourself from diving face-first into the office candy jar—check out these 10 ways to relieve stress.
MORE: 5 Foods That Have More Sugar Than a Candy Bar
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