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

You did a great job on this fact check! You went above and beyond when considering that you introduced related points outside of the main claim, which really diversified your evidence when consdering whether or not this was a factual claim.

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That is a really brilliant analysis. You have gone one step further into the source article and really highlighted some of its possible limitations, especially in the lack of data over a long period. Fascinating to point out how it pertains to ice cream consumption with regard to how the brain works because of the statistical evidence presented.

It is, however, important to put the findings into a wider context. Was this, for instance, a one-off study by the Institute of Psychology in London, or did they start doing research into the nutritional effects of mental health? Furthermore, sample size and diversity are likely to impact perceived reliability of the results.

It would be even more helpful to find out whether other studies have replicated these findings or if there is some common agreement among the scientific community regarding this topic. While the initial study was promising, it was only after a better investigation into the matter that any person would find any actual knowledge on the specific topic of how ice cream affects brain activity.

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Good job showing the long-term risks ice cream poses despite short-term brain boosts. One question I have is; is the study reliable? It’s not clear if it’s peer-reviewed or uses strong controls.

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You did an amazing job on this fact-check! You did an exceptional job sharing all important parts of the study and addressing them thoroughly. You went above and beyond diving into other areas of the study that were not fully covered previously, amazing fact-check.

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This is a thorough and insightful fact-check! You’ve done a great job analyzing the study and questioning its reliability by pointing out potential limitations, such as the lack of long-term data and whether the findings have been replicated. It’s particularly helpful that you highlighted the need for peer review and further research to confirm the claims about ice cream and cognitive performance. Expanding the discussion to include broader nutritional studies or comparisons with other breakfast options would add even more depth. Great work overall!

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."

Answer 7

Looking at the article you used for this claim, it is apparent that eating sweets such as ice cream does in fact not make you smarter. In the article a few paragraphs down it is stated that eating ice cream for breakfast is "a really bad idea. Research has shown that sugar is harmful in many ways. Ironically, in the long run it will increase your risk of depression, reduce your brain function, and make you more susceptible to Alzheimer's," wrote Rafi Letzter, a science graduate from Northwestern.

The claim proposed comes from a study by neuroscientists in London, who were not able to have a large sample size to confirm their information. In instances such as these, it's smart to look closely at the research, consider the organization that published the studies, and ask ourselves if it is reputable, seems to have highly qualified scientists on board, and whether it has a stake in the study's results. In this case the information could not be backed  accurately by other sources therefore it is false. 

Using a different source to fact-check this claim, GreenLight argues that "Traditional ice cream is high in sugar and fat, which can outweigh any potential benefits, no matter what time its consumed." This offers us a new prespective stating that ice cream and sweets will forever be bad for us, no matter what time we consume them. They are high in sugars and very low in things that can benefit us, like macros and protein. 

This makes sense though, as we don't usually tend to eat ice cream when we are hungry or in need to become smarter, perchance. We do it because it tastes good and we enjoy it. We must leave it at that and admit that it isn't good for us, rather than trying to rationalize with ourselves that it's beneficial for us in order to avoid the guilt of consuming it. 

https://greenlight.com/learning-center/parenting-and-family/ice-cream-for-breakfast 

Answer 8

The claim that eating ice cream for breakfast could make you smarter is based on a study that may not have robust scientific backing, as it likely lacks control for confounding variables, a large sample size, or peer-reviewed validation. Therefore, it's important to critically evaluate the methodology and context of such studies before drawing conclusions. Let's analyze the potential flaws and limitations of this study. To critically evaluate the claim that eating ice cream for breakfast can enhance cognitive performance, we should consider the study design, as well as confounding variables within the study.

Answer 9

This claim is false and also unsupported by the 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.

In the article, it begins by saying that, because it is a translation from another language, they aren't even able to verify the language which should be an immediate red flag in believing the facts in this article. Additionally, the headline of the article has an asterisk to your claim that you don't also include. They say it can maybe (not for sure) make you smarter and that it shouldn't become habit. The only thing that the article says positively about your claim is that it can make you more alert, which is not the same thing as smarter.