Images of High calorie Food Triggers Impulse Eating

A new study claims that just looking at pictures of fattening food is enough to make produce hunger pangs leading you to overeating and obesity. A study done by the scientists at the University of Southern California, U. S found that just the sight of a high calorie food is enough to stimulate the brains appetite control centre resulting in an increased desire for food. 

A  Double Six Dollar Burger, pepperoni pizza, Triple whopper Sandwich,  Bacon & Egg Burrito, Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard, Sirloin Steak & Egg Burrito with Fire Roasted Tomato Salsa are the most common mouth watering, irresistible fast food consumed.   And just by reading these names you would plunge and hit the nearest food joint to grab one for yourself. It is a known fact that the smell or sight of food makes your mouth water, it makes you want to eat it too.

But a new study claims that just looking at pictures of fattening food is enough to make produce hunger pangs leading you to overeating and obesity. A study done by the scientists at the University of Southern California, U. S found that just the sight of a high calorie food is enough to stimulate the brains appetite control centre resulting in an increased desire for food.

Kathleen Page, Senior study author and an assistant professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, declared: "This stimulation of the brain's reward areas may contribute to overeating and obesity. We thought this was a striking finding, because the current environment is inundated with advertisements showing images of high-calorie foods.

Brian Become Active at The Sight of Food

In order to conduct the study the team examined brain responses of a group of 13 obese young Hispanic women who were at the risk of continuous weight gain. The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to look at the brain responses. Each subject had two fMRI scans as they viewed images of high calorie foods, such as ice cream and cupcakes, as well as low calorie foods like fruit and veg, and non-food pics. The subjects were shown a set of images and they were asked to rate their hunger and desire for either sweet or savoury foods on a scale of one to ten, drinking 50 grams of glucose on one occasion and fructose on another halfway through the scans. As fMRI measures blood flow to the brain, regions with increased blood flow indicated greater activity. The team measured which brain regions were activated when viewing images and how sugar intake influenced this.

Based on the data collected researchers concluded that by simply viewing high calorie food images the region in the brain that control appetite gets triggered thereby increasing hunger pangs. Ratings of hunger and desire for savory foods also were higher after ingestion of either sugar drink Compared with glucose ingestion, fructose tended to produce greater activation of brain regions involved in reward and motivation for food.