Sounds more like energy depletion that "ego depletion".
The more stress the person is undergoing the more energy is drained. Isn't this obvious? I thought Ariely was known for brilliant insights on human behaviour. Maybe he's become a dieting guru? That's where the money is?
People overeat when they're stressed. Everyone knows that. But why? I've sometimes thought it's because overeating is like an opiate. Think about how you feel after a big meal.
The blood rushes to your stomach, you might even feel sleepy and it's much more difficult to "get stressed" than it is on an empty stomach.
When you're stressed your blood's glucose levels get depleted which weakens your ability for self-control. Once you give in, especially when you are tired and exhausted, it's easier to go all "fuck this, imma eat all I can for now and eat better later on!". Of course, eating increases the glucose level of your blood and afterwards you feel kind of bad about it and the whole idea of giving in starts to feel stupid - "I could've sticked to my promise", "It was just stupid, I should have been stronger".
There's also the fact that habitual snacking and eating "just a bit... ...all the time" grows 1) a mental habit to the act of eating 2) physical dependency to the act of having glucose levels high 3) mental and physical dependency on the good experience(smell and taste).
I used to be a person who ate once a day(lunch), and perhaps ate a fruit(banana or an apple) a few times a week to supplement. Back then I really pitied people who couldn't control their weight. To me it was outright laughable that someone simply could not refuse the sweets, pastries, soft drinks, ... because for me they were never even an option I considered. These days though, while I am not obese(although I've gained a lot of weigh which I know I should get rid of) I've realized that I've became a habitual eater. I eat constantly, all the time. Small snacks, soft drinks, whatever. All the time. Every 15-30-45 minutes I check the fridge. And I can't help it. It's not hunger. It's not the taste itself. It's the act of eating. Act of having something down my throat. While I can resist it on irregular basis every now and then, I can't cancel the actual act of habit just like this. And man, this is horrible. Now I know how it is to not being able to "just refuse it and that's it". Luckily, I consume lots more than average person(physical work, hobbies, conscious effort) so I can control my weight at least. But I am hooked on eating. Habitual eater, no way to deny it.
It's interesting if you think about how easy is is to get food. The drives that cause us to eat probably evolved in the long period of human evolution where we had to work really hard, like every other animal, to find food. Hunger might cause stress, and rightly so. The search for food, for any animal, is always a top priority. But it's so ridiculously easy for people to feed themselves now. The search for food, driven by hunger, is "trivial". You could even eat just for the fun of eating. It's fun. It's also not very healthy. But how many fun things are also healthy?
I digress.
Maybe someone in the UK can comment on what it was like during WWII when there was a severe shortage of food. I have heard some say people were actually quite healthy because they were not eating "too much" as it is so easy to do under normal conditions. I don't know. Maybe some from the UK can comment.
In sum, given that we are still animals with animal drives like hunger, finding food and eating is way too easy. Maybe our evolution has not caught up.
I can't find any solid references, but there was an improvement in health, but part of the reason could be that people who would previously have had a poor diet were 'rationed up' to a balanced and healthy one: everyone got protein and fresh veg.
This is a habit of the adiction kind. It is like alcoholism. Stoping such habit takes week and extream willpower or stay at least one month in a place without fridge etc. After one week you will already see the effect. Note that, as like acoholism, you will very easily reaquire the habit. Don't work at Google or any company offering free snaks.
Masochist cold turkey remedy: Don't buy anything you can snack on for the fridge. When you leave your home bring neither card nor cash (Except when your weekly, well-planed shopping. Then you buy exactly those things that are on the grocery list).
Having just read "Willpower" last week: Yes, ego depletion stems from energy depletion. They did a series of experiments showing that exercising willpower consumes glucose, AND that the higher your blood glucose, the more willpower you had.
The "ego" in "ego depletion" has nothing to do with Freudian ego, except as an homage.
The more stress the person is undergoing the more energy is drained. Isn't this obvious? I thought Ariely was known for brilliant insights on human behaviour. Maybe he's become a dieting guru? That's where the money is?
People overeat when they're stressed. Everyone knows that. But why? I've sometimes thought it's because overeating is like an opiate. Think about how you feel after a big meal. The blood rushes to your stomach, you might even feel sleepy and it's much more difficult to "get stressed" than it is on an empty stomach.