By Shereen Dindar | Shine On
As many of us pledge yet again to make this the year we finally get to the gym and banish those unwanted pounds, some new research might give us a little incentive to keep at it.
New research shows that physical activity makes low-calorie foods seem more appetizing.
In a small study published last month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers from the University of Birmingham found that after exercising the brain regions associated with reward were more active when viewing images of healthy food verses unhealthy food.
"Exercise increases neural responses to images of low-calorie foods and suppresses activation during the viewing of high-calorie foods," write the researchers.
Researchers asked 15 young, healthy men to jog on a treadmill for two hours. The participants where then given an MRI brain scan while being shown images of low-calorie healthy foods, as well as high-calorie unhealthy options.
The scans found that the regions of the brain associated with reward lit up when participants were shown images of low-calorie foods and showed reduced activity when they looked at pictures of more calorie-dense options.
In particular, the ventral pallidum region of the brain -- believed to be involved in processing thoughts related to rewards such as food -- was significantly elevated after exercise when low-calorie images were viewed.
The experiment was then repeated after the men had been sitting for an hour. The inactive men showed greater brain "reward centre" activity when shown images of high-calorie foods verses low-calorie foods.
This isn't the first study to compare people's appetite after exercising verses sitting. Another study presented at an American Physiological Society conference found that participants were hungrier after having a sedentary day rather an active day.
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Article source: http://ph.she.yahoo.com/blogs/shine-on/exercise-makes-low-calorie-food-more-appetizing-153231806.html
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