Missed Breakfast? A Big No No for the Weight Conscious

Everyone knows that breakfast’s good for you. How good just became a little clearer. A team of British Researchers have pinpointed scientifically how your brain craves high calorie food when you skip your morning meal.

Utilizing MRI’s of the brain, they studied 20 healthy, thin people who went without breakfast that day.?When those people were exposed to an array of food photos, both high and low fat, their brains become more active at the sight of the high-calorie options than when they saw low calorie foods. When this test was repeated on another day 90 minutes after they ate breakfast, there was no significant difference in their brain’s reaction to different caloric foods

Corresponding to the MRI findings, were ratings of appealing food pictures. After skipping breakfast, participants found calorie laden food choices to be much more tempting.  After eating, however, the group did not show a strong preference for the high-calorie foods.

According to Tony Goldstone, MD, PhD, a consultant endocrinologist with the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre at Imperial College London, “Our results support the advice for eating a healthy breakfast as part of the dietary prevention and treatment of obesity, When people skip meals, especially breakfast, changes in brain activity in response to food may hinder weight loss and even promote weight gain.”

21. September 2009 by Ruth Folger Weiss
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