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Overweight people make unhealthier food choices than lean people when presented with real food, even though both make similar selections when presented with hypothetical choices, according to research led by the University of Cambridge and published in the journal eNeuro.
The researchers found that when making hypothetical food choices, lean and overweight people showed highly comparable patterns both in terms of their choices and the accompanying brain activity. The activity in the brain was a good predictor of which foods they would choose when later faced with a selection of real food choices. But the presence of real food influenced choices differently across the groups.
Professor Theresa Marteau, Director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit at the University of Cambridge, adds: "These findings attest to the power of environments in overwhelming many people's desires and intentions to eat more healthily. The findings also reinforce the growing evidence that effective obesity policies are those that target food environments rather than education alone."
Category(s):Eating Disorders
Source material from eNeuro
