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

It might also be worth considering the long-term effects of regularly eating sugary foods like ice cream. While the short-term boost in mental performance is interesting, it’s important to consider how sugar impacts health and cognitive function over time.

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Now off the bat I think this claim is a reach, one source is not enough to claim a singular food can you make you more intelligent. now I know sugar may give you a quick energy boost which has been proven I don't think ice cream as a whole has been studied enough to make this claim

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The conclusion of the article states, "As far as making ice cream your a regular breakfast goes, don’t do it. In fact, the less sugar you eat, the better brain function you’ll have in the long term." I agree with this response, but I couldn't find reliable sources in the article. A lot of the information that was given was not properly supported by other sources. CBS News has an article that discusses the possibility of eating ice cream for breakfast, increasing someone's reaction rate and ability to process information. "According to The Guardian, a similar test performed back in 2005 by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry in London revealed that one spoonful of ice cream gives your brain the same type of pleasure as winning money or listening to your favorite music."

https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/study-ice-cream-for-breakfast-boosts-brain-performance/

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It's not hard to tell that the statement made in this article is untrue and meant to be clickbait. When something seems too good to be true, it often is. The fact that the study was first picked up by a website called "Excite News" raises much concern. A viable research study would include a dependent variable, an independent variable, and a control group. CBS News picked up on this ridiculous article to get more engagement on their site. The fact that they spent no time backing up their claim with evidence told me all I needed to know about this study. When researching this claim, I discovered a 2019 article from The Guardian that directly contradicts this claim. They state that heavily processed foods like ice cream increase the risk of disease and death. The study cited in the article by Professor Yoshihiko Koga claim eating ice cream in the morning improved alertness and mental performance. His conclusion was based on analyzing brain activity after eating different foods in the morning. If Ice cream is so good for brain health, then wouldn't I be able to eat a donut because it has similar amounts of fat and sugar? Lastly, a British nutritionist Katie Barfoot cited in The Telegraph article that the simple fact of consuming breakfast vs. not consuming breakfast could have a profound effect on mental awareness in the morning.

https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/study-ice-cream-for-breakfast-boosts-brain-performance/

https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/does-eating-ice-cream-for-breakfast-make-you-smarter-maybe-but-dont-make-a-habit.html

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/23/ice-cream-breakfast-makes-smarter-japanese-scientist-claims/

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While you proved a decent point on the topic, your title is very misleading. In an article by the “Business Insider”, A Nutritional Psychology Doctoral Researcher at Reading University claimed, "A possible explanation [for increased alertness]... is the simple presence of consuming breakfast vs. not consuming breakfast." While your claim is somewhat true, the real meaning isn’t that it truly makes you smarter, rather it just gives your body a sugar high, because food in general supports the body. Also, it would be interesting to see the long term effects of eating so much ice cream.

Answer 1

Reading the claim makes you think they are joking, but after going through the article and other similar readings, the information stated all makes sense. However, there is a common consensus that eating ice cream and sugary foods in general every day for breakfast will have negative long-term effects on you. A study in 2005 found that ice cream releases the same feelings of pleasure from winning money or listening to your favorite song, and scientists have also found that happiness improves brain function. They also found that in the long run, it will increase your risk of depression, make you more susceptible to Alzheimer's, and slow brain function. So that being said, yes ice cream helps brain function but also doesn't 

https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/does-eating-ice-cream-for-breakfast-make-you-smarter-maybe-but-dont-make-a-habit.html

https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/sugar-brain

Answer 2

Using the article provided you can deduce that this statement isn't true. There is no substantial evidence supporting the fact that ice cream for breakfast can make you smarter. In the article they specifically state that eating anything for breakfast improves your mental capabilities for that day and is much better than eating nothing at all. A more accurate statement to summarize this article would be that eating breakfast makes you smarter, which is something that can be proven. 

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.

Answer 3

Eating ice cream in the morning can be yummy, but is it healthy for you? That is the real question. I found a study the medium.com by Yoshihiko Koga that says, " people who at ice cream processed information better then those who hadn't consumed ice cream. " However, later on in the article they talk about doing the same experiment with cold water instead of ice cream, and it having some similar affects. So whose to say that it isn't just a matter of the cold aspect.

I then went on to find another article about the experiment done by Koga on the iflscience.com that says, "so it seems more likely to us that the reason the ice cream group did better was because they actually at breakfast. " From this quote and article we can see that this experiment was semi flawed and can't be used to determine if this is true or not. So we can takeaway that yes ice cream tastes good, however it is hard to know if it actually makes you smarter.

edium.com/omgfacts/smart-people-eat-ice-cream-for-breakfast-says-only-study-that-matters-b451698fa848

https://www.iflscience.com/no-probably-shouldnt-eat-ice-cream-breakfast-43760

Answer 4

The claim that "Eating Ice Cream for Breakfast Makes You Smarter" is just plain false. Just from looking it up on Google you can find multiple different articles giving you the same answer that eating ice cream for breakfast will not make you smarter. In an article titled, "A viral story that claimed eating ice cream for breakfast will make you smarter points to a bigger problem in health journalism," by Rafi Letzter. Letzer completely shuts down this argument and explains that there was not enough research done to back up this claim and Letzer also shows that the original article was partnered with a unnamed sweets company. All in all, eating ice cream for breakfast will not make you smarter. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/dont-eat-ice-cream-breakfast-2016-11

Answer 5

The reasoning behind the claim is rooted in a misunderstanding of the article itself. The article states that, "Research has shown that sugar is harmful in many ways." Earlier in the article it is said that since ice cream makes people happy, and happiness improves brain function itself, this makes eating ice cream directly correlated to brain function and therefore intelligence. Though sweet foods indeed trigger dopamine, which could appear to improve brain functions, consuming high sugar foods first thing in the morning is detrimental to the health in the long run. Studies show that breakfasts sustaining one's glucose level are important compared to high-sugar breakfasts that make blood glucose levels rise suddenly then drop, resulting in an energy crash. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031938405002283

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5494586/

Answer 6

In the article provided by the claim, the author explores the idea that eating ice cream for breakfast could potentially make a person smarter. The article references Katie Barfoot, a nutritional psychology researcher at Reading University, who explains that “high glucose (sugar) foods will indeed aid mental capacity significantly compared to not eating,” which suggests that consuming sugar or ice cream in the morning could enhance mental function.

However, later in the article, the author introduces a counterargument from Rafi Letzter, who wrote a separate article criticizing the study originally reported by The Telegraph. Letzter brings up the flaws and potential misinformation surrounding the claim, arguing that many media outlets published the story without properly doing the research behind it. He emphasizes the dangers of disinformation, pointing out numerous sources prioritized creating a clickbait headline over factual evidence and research. The article also provides additional information on the dangers of sugar. They claim that “in the long run it will increase your risk of depression, reduce your brain function, and make you more susceptible to Alzheimer’s. If you want to be smart (or have a long, healthy life), eating sweets every morning for breakfast is the last thing you should do.” Additionally, another article by Business Insider brings up the dangers of sugar and the lasting effects it may have. In the article, they bring up a study by a team of Harvard scientists that “pointed to fat as the primary dietary risk factor for heart disease, Yudkin's hypothesis was buried, and fat became public enemy No. 1.” The article then goes on to explain how all the sugar we are eating is correlated to many of the health problems that many Americans face such as diabetes, pancreatic cancer, kidney disease, and many more. 

In conclusion, while there may be some truth to the idea that sugar consumption can provide a short-term benefit, the claim that eating ice cream for breakfast makes a person smarter is misleading for the reader. Authors should be more focused on the risks of sugar and the negative effects it may have in the future instead of creating a headline that only gets them clicks.

References: https://www.businessinsider.com/sugar-health-effects-body-brain-2016-9#kidney-disease-9

https://www.inc.com/peter-economy/3-reasons-why-you-need-to-eat-less-sugar-right-now.html?cid=search

Answer 7

This statement is false because the malformation being stated about ice cream being able to give good health benefits is misleading. Based on the article providing the original information, the title even says not to take its information at face value because it acknowledges that sugar every morning first thing is bad for you. However, it goes on to claim as the main point that researchers found that test subjects performed better cognitive skills when eating ice cream in the morning right after making that clarification with the title.  It's clear that this was made for clicks rather than factual statements because it has the little note at the end of all articles while I was researching this that it's all about brain nourshiment and happiness that relate to effectiveness in brain function, not actual health benefits.

https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/does-eating-ice-cream-for-breakfast-make-you-smarter-maybe-but-dont-make-a-habit.html

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/23/ice-cream-breakfast-makes-smarter-japanese-scientist-claims/

https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/study-ice-cream-for-breakfast-boosts-brain-performance/

Answer 8

The statement that "Eating Ice Cream For Breakfast Makes You Smarter" is a claim that is backed up by simple nutritional science, Yoshihiko Koga, a professor at Kyrorin University, conducted the research where he made the participants eat ice cream first thing waking up and then perform a task on their computer. He then compared the results from the before and after, alongside people who didn't eat ice cream in the morning; only to show that those who ate ice cream performed significantly better. 

There are articles that reference nutrition as the main cause of the reason being. The News source Inc. has an article on "Does Eating Ice Cream for Breakfast Make You Smarter? Maybe, but Don't Make a Habit of It" written by Minda Zetlin. Zetlin talk about how eating something in the day will overall be beneficial for an individual rather than having no breakfast at all. She mentions that in order to get an idea as to why this happened, she refers to a study conducted in London in 2005 where people who ate vanilla ice cream had the same reaction as if they were to win money. She also emphesizes that that Business Insider Rafi Lezter plead for there ot be less mass misinformation to go around due to having high consumption of sugar every day can be dangerous, leading to "risk of depression, reduce your brain function, and make you more susceptible to Alzheimers." concluding that in the long run it would be better to eat healthier foods. Another article written by Holly Brenza called "Does eating ice cream for breakfast make you smarter," asks Krista Ryan, a clinical outcomes nurse in heart and vascular quality, as to what really goes on behind it. Krista proceeds to explain that compared to eating nothing at all, anything with high sugar concertation will hit very hard, spiking the blood sugar levels and leaving people "with sluggish energy levels and mental fogginess after the 'sugar buzz." Giving a more logical explanation rather than a statement that it does happen. The way that the study is shown is to be a statement of truthfulness, yet its understandable as to why people wouldn't want to look into the nutritional portion of the study, for it will evidently come back as a false statement.

Another article references 

Source: Does Eating Ice Cream for Breakfast Make You Smarter? Maybe, but Don't Make a Habit of It

Source: Does eating ice cream for breakfast make you smarter? | health enews