Men better at resisting food cravings
May 13, 2009
<b>Grain of science</b><br>Men are more likely than women to be able to resist a plate full of tempting food, American research suggests. In an experiment in New York, a group of 23 volunteers were asked to try to suppress their hunger.
Grain of science
Men are more likely than women to be able to resist a plate full of tempting food, American research suggests. In an experiment in New York, a group of 23 volunteers were asked to try to suppress their hunger.
The men seemed to do better and brain scans revealed they had far less activity than the women in a part of the brain linked to desire for food.
The complex mechanisms which control how much we eat are not fully understood. In the experiment, chronicled in the US journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the volunteers did not eat for a day and were asked to suppress all thoughts of food. The male participants reported fewer hunger pangs and fewer cravings for food.
A brain scanner was used to see if this was backed up by differences in the patterns of brain activation between men and women. After the men were told to resist their cravings, there was far less activity in regions of the brain called the amygdala, hippocampus, orbitofrontal cortex and striatum.
All these have been linked by other studies to “emotional regulation†and memory activation, suggesting that the men were retrieving their memories of the desired food less — perhaps making them less affected by the thought of it. “Lower cognitive control of brain responses to food stimulation in women compared to men may contribute to gender differences in the prevalence rates of obesity and other eating disorders,†wrote the research
Men are more likely than women to be able to resist a plate full of tempting food, American research suggests. In an experiment in New York, a group of 23 volunteers were asked to try to suppress their hunger.
The men seemed to do better and brain scans revealed they had far less activity than the women in a part of the brain linked to desire for food.
The complex mechanisms which control how much we eat are not fully understood. In the experiment, chronicled in the US journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the volunteers did not eat for a day and were asked to suppress all thoughts of food. The male participants reported fewer hunger pangs and fewer cravings for food.
A brain scanner was used to see if this was backed up by differences in the patterns of brain activation between men and women. After the men were told to resist their cravings, there was far less activity in regions of the brain called the amygdala, hippocampus, orbitofrontal cortex and striatum.
All these have been linked by other studies to “emotional regulation†and memory activation, suggesting that the men were retrieving their memories of the desired food less — perhaps making them less affected by the thought of it. “Lower cognitive control of brain responses to food stimulation in women compared to men may contribute to gender differences in the prevalence rates of obesity and other eating disorders,†wrote the research