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On a diet? Don't look at the food.....

Spotted this yesterday and thought it worth posting.  If you read around the topic of obesity there are various hormones that get mentioned - leptin, insulin, Peptide YY and others.  Ghrelin is another one that pops up occasionally: a hunger stimulating hormone.

Ghrelin Levels Increase After Pictures Showing Food

With a background of regular meals, these researchers showed various photos to the subjects: food and "neutral" images.  The findings suggest that sight of food elevates ghrelin levels.

Interesting but obvious too?  Seeing food makes you hungry. 

I wonder if all this has something to do with the obesity epidemic too.  Images of food are everywhere.  Appetites through the roof.  People are eating more and getting fatter.

Be careful what you spend your time looking at.
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Comments

FeelGoodEating said…
I would like to say that you can actually use this to control your appetite if you flip it on its head!

If you look at what you perceive to be a lot of food, you're mind says...that's too much food.

A trick I've used for years for some of my friends is to slice and dice food very small. Now your portions LOOK much bigger and your 4 ounces of beef now fills you up magically. Try it sometime.
Basically the opposite of the article...
Seeing TOO much Food satifies you.

Marc
May 30, 2012 at 12:12 PM
Chris said…
Good thoughts Marc!

Thanks for the support
May 30, 2012 at 1:24 PM
Robertsoncoyd said…
This very interesting thought that as many time people look at food they will became a hungry and growing fatter. If you have a strong will power then you can fight with any thing. You have to do an exercise to get back the body in shape.

Don't Diet
May 31, 2012 at 12:35 PM
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