Friday, February 10, 2012

Appetizing food ads to blame for obesity epidemic-ToI-23.1.12


London: Researchers have confirmed what many people have long suspected — mouthwatering images of food in advertisements is fuelling obesity epidemic. 
    A team at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry has found that it only takes a picture of tempting food to cause a change in the level of ghrelin hormone which control people’s appetite — and this makes many hungry, the ‘Daily Mail’ said.
 
    In fact, the effect of the hormones are so powerful that a photograph can make you want to eat a slice of cake just two hours after breakfast, says the study. The researchers suggest that people trying to shed the flab should avoid looking at pictures of tempting food.
 
    They have based their findings after conducting an experiment where they monitored the reaction of healthy men to images of food. The subjects were shown pictures of appetizing food while having their hormone levels measured.
 
    The findings revealed that levels of ghrelin increased when the men were shown food pictures. Lead researcher Petra Schussler said: “The findings of our study demonstrate that the release of ghrelin into the blood for the regulation of food consumption is also controlled by external factors. Our brain thereby processes these visual stimuli, and the physical processes that control our perception of appetite are triggered involuntarily.”
 

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