The hormone cortisol and stress responses were suppressed with the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, according to recent study findings published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.Diet beverages sweetened with aspartame did not produce the same effects, according to the researchers.

“This is the first evidence that high sugar - but not aspartame -consumption may relieve stress in humans,” Kevin D. Laugero, PhD, of the University of California, Davis, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, said in a press release.

Laugero and colleagues evaluated 19 women aged 18 to 40 years with a BMI range of 20 kg/m2 to 34 kg/m2 to determine the effect of sucrose- or aspartame-sweetened beverage consumption. Compared with aspartame, sucrose consumption was associated with significantly higher activity in the left hippocampus (P = .001).Sucrose consumption was also associated with reduced (P = .024) stress-induced cortisol.

“The results suggest differences in dietary habits may explain why some people underreact to stressful situations and others overreact,” Laugero said. “Although it may be tempting to suppress feelings of stress, a normal reaction to stress is important to good health. Research has linked over- and under-reactivity in neural and endocrine stress systems to poor mental and physical health.”

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