Eating Ice Cream for Breakfast Makes You Smarter

Question

According to the Telegraph story, subjects were told to eat ice cream upon first awakening, and then had their mental acuity tested by performing tasks on a computer. Those who'd eaten ice cream performed better and had faster reaction times, researchers found.

Comments

This was an excellent claim backed by strong evidence. I liked how you pointed out the obvious benefits but then explained the glaring negatives. Very well-done summary of the article and analysis of the material.

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The article claims that people who eat ice cream in the morning are smarter, according to a professor from Japan. The original source for this article was another article from the Telegraph. The article goes on to talk about how the real meaning behind the claim is that people who eat in the morning are, in general, more likely to do well in an academic setting. However, it then talks about how sugar is not the most effective thing to eat in the morning and may actually be more harmful. Overall, the article’s title is mostly clickbait using another person’s claim. But, it does do a good job of deconstructiuing the claim, providing evidence to support their theories, and using real sources to back it up. For instance, they used stats from reputable sources such as business insider and INC.com.

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This article conveys if ice cream and sugar for breakfast is okay. It explores the importance of breakfast and the detrimental effects of sugar, depicting how sugar can be harmful toward your brain. The claims are backed with reliable statistics such as ice cream leads to happiness and happiness can improve brain functioning, backed by the Institute of Psychology in London. Because of the reputable facts within the article, I think it is trustworthy even if the author combats their claim. The author of the article also brings up one of their main points as being aware of trustworthy studies, as the article is based around combating a misinformative study on ice cream. In general, this article is trustworthy because of the sources and their backgrounds, as well as the importance of well researched studies.

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This was a great claim and super attention grabbing, definitely stood out on the explore page. The original source was a professor from Tokyo, Japan who published their findings on a Japanese news site. It was then translated and analyzed by the Telegraph. The claims describe how the happiness and coldness ice cream provides does indeed improve performance, however, sugar is just not good for you in general. The article seems to be trustworthy and is backed up by sufficient evidence, as well as offering opposing claims.

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This article is an excellent example of the importance of not interpreting a study at face value or in a vacuum. The study conducted was limited in scope and did not address more long-term factors of having ice cream for breakfast. It also measured mental alertness, which is not the same as measuring intelligence. As the rest of the article correctly points out, there are a host of other factors that are necessary to analyze this study.

Answer 1

The article claims that eating ice cream increases productivity, when actually, having any type of food increases attention span. The article explains that the Japanese study had a group of people eat ice cream immediately after waking up. Afterwards, they were asked to complete a series of tasks set by a computer to measure their reaction times. They also practiced this with cold water, but didn't receive the same results. This is also a common reaction to glucose due to sugar being an instant energy source. CBS News also states that a similar test was done in 2009, and the same results occurred.

Answer 2

While a lot of people might wish this study were true, there is a lack of factual evidence, and evidence that isn't misleading that proves eating ice cream improve cognitive function. According to a number of tests of Koga's research, increased mental alertness may not be caused by the specific effects of ice cream, but by eating breakfast. According to nutritionists, eating glucose in the morning, whether as a sweet treat or a more normal breakfast, can improve brain function after an overnight fast, showing that other foods might have similar effects.  So the study's design highlights the overall effect of eating breakfast on alertness rather than concentrating only on ice cream as the cause of improved cognitive function. An article I found to support my claim is Vice's piece discussing Yoshihiko Kona's study.

 https://www.vice.com/en/article/this-scientist-says-eating-ice-cream-for-breakfast-makes-you-smarter/

Answer 3

This claim is misleading and completely misinterpreted in a study based in japan. The study observed participants who ate ice cream for breakfast and found that they performed better on mental tests immediately afterward compared to those who didn’t. The study found a faster reaction time in participants, but nothing related to intelligence. .They tested the same thing with cold water and the results were similar. Showing that more likely that the stimulating effect of cold food helped wake the participants up, leading to temporary improvements in alertness rather than long-term benefits. Not ice cream.

source: the included article

Answer 4

At first glance this claim seems insane as everyone knows ice cream to be a sweet treat and to be had later in the day if anything at nighttime and not as a breakfast item or the first thing you have when you wake up as ice cream contains a pretty good amount of sugar that cant be good for your brain or your teeth and I'm sure many more things. so for this claim to say having ice cream first thing in the morning makes you smarter is a statement i want to look deeper into and prove that your wrong on just based on my own opinion's and beliefs 

First when looking at your own article that you provided and reading it i would say it is a reliable source that was published fairly recently in 2017 by a publisher in Tokyo that did a research study on whether or not eating ice cream in the first thing in the morning would be beneficial or not and unfortunately was proven to be more harmful than anything as stated in the beginning of the article sure the excitement from the coldness of sugar can and will wake you up such as caffeine would which i would understand why would lead one to the statement of how sugar can help possibly make you have a productive day as it could be a substitute for caffeine but not quite later in the article it states how harmful sugar is for you and how it can actually reduce your brain function and cause you depression or Alzheimer's down the road if eaten for breakfast every morning the concluding statement literally states to not eat ice cream for breakfast, "as far as making ice cream your regular breakfast goes don't do it" then talks about how the less sugar the better. article: https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/does-eating-ice-cream-for-breakfast-make-you-smarter-maybe-but-dont-make-a-habit.html#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Telegraph%20story,faster%20reaction%20times%2C%20researchers%20found.

My second article that I found on my own actually discusses this article specifically and how yes ice cream can give you that alertness such as caffeine can in the morning but its not a healthy subsistent and even though we would all love to have ice cream for breakfast every morning our bodies are just waking up for the day we need glucose and vitamins etc. to start off our day and to activate our brains not spark them with some sugar. article: https://www.vice.com/en/article/this-scientist-says-eating-ice-cream-for-breakfast-makes-you-smarter/

Answer 5

The idea that eating ice cream for breakfast makes you smarter isn’t really true. Sure, it might give you a quick sugar rush, but ice cream is pretty low in the nutrients your brain actually needs to stay sharp, like omega-3s and vitamins. In fact, a breakfast high in sugar can lead to an energy crash later, making it harder to focus and think clearly. On the other hand, meals with protein, fiber, and healthy fats—like eggs, yogurt, or fruit—really help support brain function and keep you feeling alert. So while ice cream might give you a little mood boost, it's not going to help your brain in the long run.

https://ajcn.nutrition.org/

Answer 6

There are layers to this claim, and the simplicity of saying that "eating ice cream for breakfast makes you smarter" can be extremely misleading. The term "smarter" is a vague statement, as it isn't specified whether this is referring to long term sharpness, or the performance of a singular task. It can be inferred by the experiment discussed in the article (in which subjects are tested on a computer after eating ice cream), that the term "smarter" is contextually referring to short-term mental alertness. It is clarified by Katie Barfoot, a nutritional psychologist, that glucose consumption will in fact boost mental capacity as compared to eating nothing. However, there are elements to the experiment missing, such as how eating ice cream in the morning would compare to eating foods with a higher nutritional value. The end of the article admits that sugar (specifically in the form of ice cream) isn't necessarily beneficial to your health, especially long term. The second to last paragraph even advises readers to further research claims they see on the internet rather than believing them immediately. Therefore, this claim is not entirely true, and although having ice cream in the morning here and there could potentially be beneficial in comparison to other alternatives, it isn't necessarily "good for you."