From Shane Maloney
If Roy Baumeister and colleagues are correct that judges are more self-controlled after lunch (28 January, p 30) then lord help anyone who has to face a judge on the Atkins diet, which induces a state of low plasma glucose and ketosis, driven mainly by a reduction in carbohydrate intake.
But for those not on an Atkins diet, a glass of lemonade will not change plasma glucose very much. What will change are some of the hormones involved in plasma glucose regulation, such as insulin. In some tissues, such as skeletal muscle and liver, insulin stimulates glucose uptake from the blood; but brain glucose uptake is generally thought to be independent of insulin.
Could this finding mean that there are willpower neurons hiding in the brain that do require insulin for glucose uptake?
Crawley, Western Australia
