[pazimzadeh]

Cool study. Not too surprising though given how much time plants have had to optimize growth.

Kind of similarly, you don't need to swallow high energy drinks to get the performance benefits.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/apr/15/high-energy-...

[unfitted2545]

Could this not be the sublingual absorbtion of sugar rather than seemingly random "brain signals" the article suggests?

[bandofthehawk]

I was thinking along similar lines. If this was purely due to brain signals, I would think the artificial sweetener would also work.

[istjohn]

They did better drinking a placebo than swishing and spitting a beverage with real sugar, so no.