Sweet at the end of the meal: a new study explains why it is difficult to give up
Have you ever wondered why is it so difficult to give up the dessert at the end of the meal? It doesn’t matter how long and rich both: think about panettone on which we go to the end of the Christmas lunch or, to remain on current affairs, to the dove and at Easter eggs. But they can also be sweets simpler: a chocolate, a candyOr anything else is around the house. We can’t say no, and we certainly don’t do it out of hunger, but out of gluttonousness. Except exceptions, of course: people who show they have an enviable willpower.
Who can resist the wants The cake at the end of the meal is able to inhibit a very powerful hormone: endorphins. They are the hormones of happiness, of the reward, those we produce when we have sex, sports, we eat foods that we like or – in the specific case – we look at foods rich in sugars such as desserts.
Sweets and neural mechanisms: the study published on Science
One just discovered it study of Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research of Cologne Posted on Science. A study that is arousing interest because it has offered a new perspective on the theme of “Dessert stomach”, or “specific sensory satiety”. A way used by scientists to say that our stomach has always placed for sugars, but that it is not equally willing to eat anything else if it is already full. Other studies explained it, confirming that at the end of a lunch or dinner the idea of eating the same dishes still causes disgust, while exactly the opposite happens with desserts.
What happens in our brain when we can’t say no to desserts
The latest research published on Science, Starting from here it went beyond explaining the reasons for this mechanism. It was carried out on mice, which have a dessert stomach very similar to ours, and then verified on humans, and investigated the neural mechanisms. Thus the German scientists found that hypothalamaci neurons are activated at the end of a meal which, however, produce different neurotransmitters: thealpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone which induces the sense of satiety and therefore leads to stop eating, and ß-endorfine if instead the presence of sugars is perceivedBecause for example the dessert is visible on a plate, or in a showcase. So the mechanism of desire: The desire to eat sweets that, at the same time, activate receptors that set in motion the reward mechanism and make them even more pleasant. “From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense: the sugar is rare in nature, but provides rapid energy,” commented Dr. Henning Fenselau Fenselau who led the research. “The brain – he continued – It is scheduled to check the intake of sugar every time it is available».
The new frontiers of science, and what we already know about sugars
It is not just a curious research, that “justifies” some rude: Discoveries like this open new paths for therapies against obesity that could act by blocking the celebraral mechanisms that lead us to eat. The researchers themselves underlined it, explaining that obviously further insights will be needed. In the meantime, however, we have an extra tool: we know exactly what happens in our brain. For some time, however, we also know that we must not always support him, because Sweets – and all foods rich in sugars and fats – should be an exception. Alternatively, therefore, the classic rule is worth: it is better to prefer fruit.
