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'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.

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Have you considered what this will do in the long term? The article you provided states, "Eating ice cream first thing in the morning makes people more mentally alert," this doesn't necessarily mean it makes "smarter."  Anyone who likes ice cream would be happier if they ate it in the morning, but that doesn't make you smart. Your article also stated, "Ironically, 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." This statement contradicts your claim.

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

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You nailed the hook with the Telegraph study—ice cream-boosting reaction times are wild! I’d push you to investigate the researcher’s background more; the study feels murky without a clear paper, and I spotted some early buzz on X hinting at a sweets company tie-in, which could skew things. The glucose angle you mentioned makes sense, but I wonder if any breakfast would do the trick, not just ice cream. Digging into that original context could really sharpen your fact-check—great start!

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This claim is not accurate. The title and description of the claim did do a great job of summarizing the main ideas of the source, but the source itself is not guaranteed trustworthy. First of all, the author of this article does not show enough background and professions. Minda Zetlin, an author who does not specialize in any scientific or nutritious topic, does not give us enough proof that she is convincing enough when it comes to a health and science related topic such as "does eating ice cream increase your IQ". The source itself did refer and quote from multiple professionals, but their ideas always came down to "ice cream makes people happy and therefore increases brain functions". This is not explicitly mean eating ice cream make people smarter since brain functions don't directly imply to intelligence. It would be more accurate if the claim was "eating ice cream increases brain functions".

Answer 1

The claim itself is intriguing and almost believable in the introduction to the article by Inc.com. However, almost immediately after the initial paragraph, the article warns against its own claim, stating that "eating sweets for breakfast is the last thing you should do." It uses evidence from a different article by the same site that explains why sugar is bad for you (link). This article is based off a different one by Telegraph that took direction from a study conducted by a Japanese professor Tokyo's Kyorin University. The article explains that the original study merely shows that it's not really ice cream that increased brain activity in the morning, but simply eating something after waking up, as suggested by nutritional psychologist Katie Barfoot. 

As shown in the article, the claim that ice cream makes you smarter is undeniably false, and it is strongly suggested to avoid such sugars as it's harmful to health in the long run. 

Comments

It was nice how you provided your insight about how the article was written. It goes to show how it could have affected the claim of "eating ice cream for breakfast makes you smarter," and why the claim was made the way it was. The telegraph source was very interesting and provided a much more realistic view that is much more plausible.

Answer 2

The claim Eating Ice Cream For Breakfast Makes You Smarter is exaggerated/misleading. According to The Telegraph it revealed "eating a certain amount of ice cream immediately after waking up in the morning can actually make you smarter. It went on to talking about how they did a study on people after waking up and doing computer exercises that they had an "increased reaction rate and were better able to process information", that doesn't necessarily make you smarter, just more aware. Champion's Ice Cream also wrote an article saying that "particularly ice cream, had an 'awakening' effect on the brain. As a result, study subjects showed higher alertness and quicker response", which the article doesn't actually say that it makes humans smarter. Lastly, The New Zealand Herald wrote about a professor at Tokyo's Kyorin University named Yoshihiko Koga that did a study on people in the morning and had them do brain exercises. He concluded the "group were better at processing new information and showed faster reaction times", again, not stating that it actually had evidence and data that it made someone smarter. 

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

https://www.chapmans.ca/scoop/study-ice-cream-for-breakfast-is-good-for-

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/ice-cream-for-breakfast-makes-you-smarter-claims-scientist/3HDNSNQJWTGQL26HATKQ6RKKWQ/

Answer 3

The claim being made is in a way true, but ultimately it is false. In the study done by Yoshihiko Koga she had subjects eat ice cream when they first woke up and tested their mental activity with performance tasks on the computer. Those who had eaten the ice cream performed better and had a faster reaction time compared to those who didn't, but it was also a similar concept due to the shock from the cold. Another reason why it could have activated the brain more was because ice cream is proven to make our brain happier and this increases brain function. 

The reason why this claim is ultimately false is because sugar is actually bad for you. When we consume too much sugar it actually causes depression and reduces your brain function. In regards to eating ice cream as a regular breakfast don't do it. The less sugar you eat the better brain function that you will have in the long term.

Answer 4

In the article, it states that just having any food at all increases your attention. A quote from Katie Barfoot in the Telegraph supports that. “In general, people who eat something early in the day may be more alert than those who eat nothing. High glucose (sugar) foods will indeed aid mental capacity significantly compared to not eating”. According to the Better Health Channel, if you don’t have breakfast, you might find you feel a bit sluggish and struggle to focus on things. This is because your brain hasn’t received the energy (glucose) it needs to get going, something most would find agreeable and unworthy of a second guess. You can find more about the benefits to starting your day with a meal on that site. The idea of ice cream making you literally smarter isn’t the same as consuming any nutrition resulting in better attention. Yes, the experiment did convey that the subjects had better performances on their acuity tests, and yes there was proof of ice cream boosting moods and ultimately subjects’ attention, but this was not representative of the article's heading. The evidence provided that long term and consistent consumption of sugar can actually lessen your cognitive ability, which actively conflicts with the original statement of the article. Eating ice cream won't make you smarter. Providing your body with nourishment early in the day, however, will likely boost your ability to stay focused.

Answer 5

This claim does appear to be true. After reading both the linked article, and reading a similar article by CBS News, it seems to be true that eating icecream in the morning improves reaction times and boosts mental performance. In the study they repeated the experiment with cold water instead of icecream. They found that while cold water did boost mental performance, it was not as much as the icecream had. However, this claim left out a very important part of the article. The Inc. article actually goes on to say that eating icecream for breakfast is a "really bad idea." In the long run sugar will "increase your risk of depression, reduce your brain function, and make you more susceptible to Alzheimer's." So while icecream does temporarily boost your mental performance in the morning, this does not mean that you should in fact do this. It will decrease your mental performance in the long run. Just eat healthy in the morning. It will increase your mental performance over time.

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.

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

Answer 6

The evidence from this article comes from research done by professors at Kyorin University in Tokyo, whose study found that individuals who had eaten ice cream for breakfast performed better in "a series of mental exercises" than those who had not. These tests were kept vague in both this article and the Telegraph article that it is referencing but they were said to have tested people's reaction times and information processing capabilities. These findings are interesting, given that they found a positive correlation with higher performance in these tests and having ice cream for breakfast, but doing well in these tests doesn't make someone smarter than someone who did poorly in such tests since they only give information on processing and reaction time. Also, the article itself mentions that "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" which pretty much kills the claim.

Answer 7

I'd like to go ahead and say that I can believe it's true. This article does a really great job listing studies and backing it up with other articles like the one stated below in the same article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/23/ice-cream-breakfast-makes-smarter-japanese-scientist-claims/

I researched the same titles online, and discovered another article from 2019 that backs up this one. A Nutritional Psychology Doctoral Researcher named Katie Barfoot quotes, "Our brain needs glucose to function, and a high glucose meal will aid mental capacity considerably compared to a fasted brain." Katie Barfoot does state though that this wouldn't mean eating breakfast is good for your health.Quote, "A study which explores the interaction between consumption of low and high GI foods, whilst including a fasten group, would establish a better understanding of this increased mental capacity." Apart from this, I did additional research and found out another website which happened to be an Ice Cream Shop called, Chapman's Ice Cream, who also linked back its evidence to the study at Kyorin University in Tokyo. Although it is pretty much restates the most of the article's research and evidence, it's another way to somewhat confirm the evidence and acknowledge it in another article. 

https://www.chapmans.ca/scoop/study-ice-cream-for-breakfast-is-good-for-you/

https://www.dairyherd.com/news-news/new-products-news/business/should-you-really-eat-ice-cream-breakfast

Answer 8

Minda Zetlin is the Author of 'Career Self-Care: Find Your Happiness, Success, and Fulfillment at Work'. The article uses information from a study by Yoshihiko Koga, a professor at Kyorin University, Katie Barfoot, a nutritional psychology researcher at Reading University, and The Telegraph. The linked page on Excite News could not be found. The author admits that the story reported was not in English, so it might not be 100% accurate. Not to mention, the article contradicts itself when it brings up the point that eating sugar in the morning is not good for your overall health. Many articles support Minda Zetlin's claim that eating ice cream in the morning makes you smarter but they do not mention the negative side effects of eating ice cream in the morning, which adds accuracy to this whole article. However, the claim that ice cream makes you smarter is true(at least not in the long run), as the sugar and cold temperature causes an increase in alpha waves in your brain, making you more alert.

Answer 9

The Study that if ice cream for breakfast is a claim that one may find weird to try but in the article that was linked it  states that sugar isn't a good option for breakfast as according to Business Insider's Rafi Letzter and his team they have advised to definitely not eat sugar for breakfast as weirdly enough it has bad effects and that sugar in the long run it can increase the risk of depression,reduce your brain function, depending on the person Ice Cream can make people go in a good mood but it should not be consumed for the first meal of the day

Answer 10

I feel like in the article read to me it's more like ice cream makes you happier and mentally checked not really smarter. Maybe in Japan and England that works but I don't know if that strategy would work everywhere else. I didn't find any statistics or research about this except from the two that were mentioned in the article. I wish this is true but there isn't enough evidence to suggest this strategy works.

Comments

This response seems to be a little too opinionated, you also didn't provide any sources or reasons why you would agree or disagree. Next time you could try listing information from the given articles even if you couldn't find other sources.