The influence of glucose intake and psychosocial stress on food craving in healthy adults

. After stressor exposure, food craving was assessed a second time. We repeatedly assessed salivary cortisol and blood glucose and used linear mixed models to test whether the experimental manipulations predicted changes in craving. We further explored associations with sex and stress-eating tendency. Blood glucose increased in those consuming glucose and the stress test increased cortisol significantly. Higher cortisol reactivity, and a greater increase in blood glucose led to significant reductions in food craving over time. We found no supportive evidence that glucose and cortisol reactivity interactively affected craving. These findings suggest that strong metabolic signals triggered by calorie intake may be more influential than cortisol in shaping immediate food craving in moderate, acute stress situations. Additionally, acute cortisol elevations may not universally promote food craving.