Scientists have discovered that when it comes to favorite foods, women can hardly say no. On the other hand, men have a much easier time than the opposite sex. This discovery may explain the higher obesity rate for women and girls. The findings appear in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

During the study, 13 women and 10 men were asked about their favorite foods, which ranged from pizza to cinnamon buns and burgers to chocolate cake, and then they were asked to fast overnight. The next day, the participants underwent brain scans while being presented with their favorite foods. In addition, they used a technique called cognitive inhibition, which they had been taught, to suppress thoughts of hunger and eating.

Interesting enough, even if both men and women said the inhibition technique decreased their hunger, the brain scans showed that men's brain activity actually decreased, while the part of women's brains that responds to food remained active. One of the possible explanations could be that the traditional role of the female is to provide nutrition to children, and that's why the female brain may be hard-wired to eat when foods are available.

According to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 35.3 percent of American women and 33.3 percent of men were considered obese in 2006. Even if the results of the study were contradictory, they suggest that training in reducing food desires or in reacting to food cues could be effective treatments to combat obesity.

Behavioral studies have already shown that women have a higher tendency than men to overeat when presented with tasty food or under emotional distress, and this may results from differences in sex hormones. Further research is planned to see if that is the case. The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the General Clinical Research Center of Stony Brook University.