How 'fat-nav' guides us to more calories: Overweight people have in-built trait which points them towards high-calorie food
- Researchers at University of Aberdeen gave 41 students memory test
- Those who could remember where to buy fatty snacks had higher BMI
- Trait may have pointed our ancestors towards energy-rich food
By Pat Hagan
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Overweight people have an in-built ‘fat-nav’ that helps them remember where high-calorie food is, a study suggests.
The discovery comes after psychologists at the University of Aberdeen asked 41 students to imagine they were going to a food fair. They were then shown images of fruit and vegetables and high-calorie snacks, and briefly shown the location of stalls selling them.
In tests, those who were better at remembering where to buy fatty snacks were more likely to have a higher body mass index – which compares height with weight.
Overweight people have an in-built 'fat-nav' that helps them remember where high-calorie food is
The trait may have helped our ancestors survive when food was in short supply, by pointing them towards energy-rich options.
The latest research suggests it may explain why some find it so hard to resist over-consumption of calorie dense snacks, even though food is in abundance.
Obesity has emerged as a major burden on the NHS.
Recent figures showed the number of people admitted to hospital for obesity-related illnesses has shot up by more than 10 times in the past decade.
These range from surgery to have gastric bands fitted or undergo gastric bypass procedures, to weight-related ailments such as breathing difficulties and even organ failure.
Health experts predict Britain’s obesity epidemic will cost the NHS and the economy £60bn annually by 2050.
Previous research has highlighted that both men and women have a better spatial memory for high calorie foods instead of low calorie ones. Spatial memory is where we store information about our immediate environment.
When our predecessors were foraging for foods, the ability to recall the location of energy-rich items would have been crucial for survival.
The research found that students who were better at remembering where to buy fatty snacks had a higher body mass index
The latest research, led by Dr Kevin Allan, from the School of Psychology at Aberdeen University, looked at whether there was a direct link between this evolutionary trait and body mass index, a measure of weight compared to height.
He recruited 41 female students with body mass index ratings varying from 18.5 to 30.
Anything between 18 and 25 is judged to be healthy but a score of 30 or more is classed as obese.
Researchers chose women for the study because the evidence suggests they have a better memory for the location of ‘gatherable’ foodstuffs than men.
The volunteers were told to imagine they were at an international food fair with 24 stalls. They were then shown images of either healthy fruit and vegetables or calorie-loaded snacks and the location of the stall selling them, before these details were taken away from them.
Participants were asked to think about how desirable each food item was and to try and remember where on the map each one came from.
The results, published online in the journal Appetite, showed women who were better able to remember which stalls sold the snack foods were also more likely to have a higher body mass index.
In a report on their findings the researchers said: ‘Improved spatial memory for high-calorie snacks predicted higher and less healthy body mass index.
‘In contrast, no significant relationship existed between women’s BMI and spatial memory for fruits and vegetables.
‘These findings reveal, for the first time to our knowledge, a link between spatial memory function and weight gain in the modern urban food environment.’
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The "built in" trait is laziness and lack of discipline.
- JoeEsty , Denver, 07/4/2013 14:22
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