It appears that food looks more tempting for women than for men and they just can’t resist to their desire to eat.

 

For the study, the researchers gave the participants (13 women and 10 men) questionnaires about their favourite foods. The participants fasted for 20 hours and then the researchers gave them their favourite food. They were asked to smell and taste the food but not eat it. The experiment continued with another request: the hungry participants were told to inhibit their desire to eat the goodies. During the experiment, the researchers used PET scans to measure their brain activity.

The results of the scans showed that certain areas of the brain were more active in both the men and women when they saw the food. The brain areas in question were those that control emotions and motivations.

 

When they were asked to abstain from eating the food, the women’s brains continued to act as if they were hungry.

The researchers suggested that hormones may play a role in controlling a woman’s need to eat. They say that training in reducing food desires or in reacting to food cues could be effective treatments to combat obesity.

The study appears in this weeks’ issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

A previous study has shown that overweight women might experience lower pleasure responses when drinking a milkshake. The study has revealed that overweight people have fewer dopamine receptors in the brain, so they overeat to compensate this deficit.