Researchers at the Imperial College London conducted the interesting study, and the results were presented at The Endocrine Society’s 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques were used to visualise the brain activity of 20 healthy, non-obese people who skipped breakfast. The results showed that the brain’s reward centres were activated more by the sight of high-calorie foods including cake, chocolate, and pizza, than low calorie foods like salad, vegetables and fish. When the same subjects at breakfast on a different day, the MRIs showed no difference in the level of activation of the brain’s reward systems when subjects saw pictures of high-calorie foods.
The MRI findings correlated with how the subjects were feeling after having skipped breakfast or not. If they skipped it, they rated the high-calorie foods as more appealing than the low-calorie foods. When they ate breakfast, they showed no particular preference for one kind of food over the other. Apparently, the brain will try to compensate for the missed meals however it can.
“Our results support the advice for eating a healthy breakfast as part of the dietary prevention and treatment of obesity,” said lead author Dr. Tony Goldstone, MD, PhD, a consultant endocrinologist with the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre at Imperial College London. “When people skip meals, especially breakfast, changes in brain activity in response to food may hinder weight loss and even promote weight gain.”
There is also hope that these findings may lead to new treatments for obesity, including drugs that prevent activation of the brain’s reward systems and reduce the appeal of high-calorie foods.
