Neuroscientist explains how negative news makes people gain weight

Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD proposes a connection between exposure to negative news and metabolic changes. Dr. Feldman Barrett holds positions at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. She serves as the Chief Science Officer for the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior and is ranked among the top 0.1% most cited scientists globally for her groundbreaking research in psychology and neuroscience.

She suggests that the state of uncertainty induced by negative news can significantly impact our metabolism. Some media tends to emphasize adverse events, leading to an involuntary intake of pessimistic information. Constantly hearing negative news can really affect our well-being. People who choose not to watch the news might be doing something good for their overall health.

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Dr. Feldman Barrett believes that issues such as theft, fraud, conflict, political instability, economic downturns, and environmental crises directly affect our quality of life and overall health.

Feldman Barrett stated that the brain's primary role is to ensure the body's survival by conducting "body budgeting" to evaluate the combined impact of the stressors we encounter on a daily basis. “If your body budget is already depleted by the circumstances of life — like physical illness, financial hardship, hormone surges, or simply not sleeping or exercising enough — your brain becomes more vulnerable to stress of all kinds. You may end up feeling ground down into a pulp,” she says according to the Harvard Business Review.

Watching  the news while eating is a big no-no

She also says one study found that social stress adds 104 calories to the meal. “If this happens daily, that’s 11 pounds gained per year! Not only that, but if you eat healthful, unsaturated fats — such as those found in nuts — within one day of being stressed, your body metabolizes these foods as if they were filled with bad fats.” 

According to the Harvard Business Review, Barrett adds that in her research, "she has been able to stimulate a cortisol surge in test subjects by subtly implying, through her tone of voice or behavior, that they are being evaluated negatively (in effect, creating micro stress)."

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Exposure to negative news can alter one's perception of reality and create a perpetual state of hypervigilance. This overexposure to information, mainly through social media and other sources, can lead to pervasive emotional exhaustion, regardless of one's circumstances. 

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Eating while exposed to negative news can lead to an increase in daily calorie intake by approximately 104 calories

Consuming negative news not only affects the nervous system but also has an impact on metabolism. "Uncertainty gives rise to an unpleasant state of physiological arousal, which most people, particularly in Western cultures, label as anxiety, illustrating a key principle of their constructed emotion theory," the expert said during a Masterclass.

Adding that "being stressed in the two hours after a meal causes the brain and body to metabolize what you eat in a way that adds the equivalent of 104 calories to the meal. If this happens daily, that equals about half an extra kilo per month."