The brains of men and women respond differently to eating large quantities of chocolate. After eating large amounts of chocolate, different areas are active in men and women. Biologist and nutrition researcher Paul Smeets discovered this in his MRI study, conducted at UMC Utrecht.
In the study, following a night of fasting, twelve men and twelve women got as many pieces of chocolate as they could manage to eat. To measure how much the chocolate appealed to them, the test subjects were given chocolate milk before and after their chocolate breakfast. In the meantime, Smeets determined their brain activity with an MRI scanner.
All test subjects responded differently to the chocolate milk after eating the chocolate than before eating it. But different areas of the brain reacted to this in men and women. This means that the sensation of fullness can be seen in the brain, and that men and women deal with fullness differently. This research can be significant for developing foods that generate a feeling of fullness but only contain a small number of calories. These foods could possibly be different for men and women.
More information:
UMC Utrecht, In- and External Communication
Linda Minnen, Annette Aarts, 088 75 574 83.