THE SCIENCE BEHIND 'HANGRY'

Feeling short-tempered with your spouse? Try grabbing a snack before picking a fight. New research on the connection between blood sugar and anger has found that those with low blood sugar levels are more likely to be grumpy or outright aggressive toward their spouses than those with normal levels. For the study, 107 married men and women were given voodoo dolls symbolizing their spouses. Each night for three weeks, they were asked to stab the doll whenever they felt angry, with more pricks signaling greater frustration. The results showed that the lower a person’s blood glucose, the more pins they were likely to stick in the doll. Scientists then tested to see if those ill feelings translated into nasty behavior. They pitted spouses against each other in a computer game, the winner of which got to blast annoying sounds like sirens and dentist drills through headphones worn by their mate. Once again, those with lower blood sugar levels were more likely to play the noises for longer periods and at louder volumes. “Glucose is the food for the brain that we need to exercise self-control,” Ohio State University psychologist Brad Bushman tells NPR.org. “When people’s glucose levels are low, they are poorer at exercising self-control.”

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