shown images of high calorie foods such as doughnuts and French fries

New research carried out by a team of scientists from Yale University and the University of Southern California shows that obese individuals find it very difficult to ignore cravings for certain high calorie foodstuffs which in turn shows why it is so difficult for them to lose weight.

The research was done by artificially manipulating the blood sugar levels in a group of volunteers and scanning their brains with MRI scanners. In all there were fourteen volunteers of whom five were classified as clinically obese. They were all shown images of high calorie foods such as doughnuts and French fries, low calorie foods like salads and other images not containing food.

When the blood sugar levels were reduced in all of the volunteers, the part of the brain which is linked to reward registered a lot of activity therefore activating the desire to consume high calorie foods. When blood sugar levels were increased to normal levels the normal weight individuals registered more activity in the prefrontal cortex which is the part of the brain which controls impulse however the obese individuals carried on registering brain activity showing a continued craving for high calorie foods.

It seems kind of obvious that obese people have problems with cravings for high calorie foods because after all if they didn't have them they wouldn't be obese, however this research is important because it opens up avenues to properly understand the mechanisms involved in those cravings and also to come up with remedies and cures to deal with the problem.

Professor Rajita Sinha from the Yale Child Study Center said that this research was significant and important for the process of dealing with the worldwide obesity epidemic and Dr. Robert Sherwin who also worked on the study said that this proved that there were biological factors which played a part in the control of food cravings.

The researchers suggested that obese people trying to lose weight should try and keep their blood sugar levels from dropping too low because that would cause them to crave unhealthy food and to overeat. They said that keeping a bag of nuts or some fruit handy would enable them to stop becoming too hungry and therefore control very strong appetite cravings.

The research was published in full by the Journal of Clinical Investigation.