Women just cant say no to food
Article Type: Food facts From: Nutrition & Food Science, Volume 39, Issue 4
Considering the amount of time most women spend saying “Oh no, I couldn’t possibly” to their favourite tasty treats, you would think they would have developed better skills for resisting temptation by now. But according to a US study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,women really are the weaker sex when it comes to giving in to food cravings.
By scanning the brains of a group of men and women, researchers led by Dr Gene-Jack Wang of New York’s Brookhaven National Laboratory discovered big differences in the brain functioning of the male and female volunteers. Following a 17-hour fast, the 23 volunteers were tempted with their favourite foods, including cakes, ice cream, hamburgers and bacon and egg sandwiches. But instead of tucking in, they were asked to take their minds off how hungry they were by thinking about something else.
At that point, their brains were monitored using positron emission tomography(PET) scans. The scans revealed the parts of the men’s brains involved with the desire to eat were less active when the volunteers were told to suppress their need for food. But in the women, the brain patterns didn’t change much – which suggests the female brain is less capable of ignoring or resisting hunger pangs.
And that, say experts, could explain why many women find it harder to lose weight than men, as well as why women, statistically speaking, are more likely to be morbidly obese than men.
Some, however, might argue that the study simply confirms what we already knew: that sticking to a weight-loss diet can be tough, whether you’re male or female. But there are ways of helping yourself and making losing weight easier, including taking a natural diet supplement called Hoodia Mint.
Made from the hoodia gordonii plant, which grows in the deserts of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Angola, Hoodia Mint contains high levels of the plant’s active ingredient, called P57. Tests show that P57 is a potent appetite suppressor that sends signals to the brain to suggest fullness (Brain Research, September 2004).
For further details, see www.hoodiamint.co.uk
