In Spanish there is an expression, “cheat hunger”, which fits perfectly with a curious research that has been promoted by the Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services center of the Rowett Institute, belonging to the University of Aberdeen, in Scotland. The experiment consisted of checking if there is a kind of “placebo effect ” for appetite; that is, if it depends only on caloric intake or the suggestion of our mind also intervenes .
The experts recruited 26 volunteers and gave them a hearty breakfast: a three-egg omelette. The trick was that half of them were informed that it was four eggs and the rest that it had only been made with two . The subsequent follow-up left no room for doubt: those who thought they had eaten less were considerably hungrier afterwards and ate more pasta at lunchtime.
The director of the study, Peter Brown, of Hallam Sheffield University (England), has thus summarized his conclusions, presented recently at an annual conference of the British Psychological Society: “ Previous work had already demonstrated the influence of people’s expectations in the sensation of hunger or satiety , and, consequently, in what they eat afterwards. Our research has focused on solid food intake at the beginning of the day and caloric intake over the next four hours, the typical period between breakfast and lunch. Those who believed they had eaten less consumed significantly fewer calories than everyone else throughout the day. “
Before, other psychologists had already observed, indeed, this phenomenon with other types of foods: liquids (drinks) and semisolids (such as soups or creams).
The springs of appetite
As Brown himself explained, the experts also analyzed blood samples from the participants both times the experiment was repeated to measure, mainly, the levels of ghrelin, known as the “hunger hormone” , which has already managed to be manipulated to control food consumption in other investigations. But they found no evidence that the information provided altered the amount of ghrelin generated by the volunteers, so the effects must be attributed exclusively to psychological suggestion .
“The objective now, therefore, must be to delve into why the expectations of what we eat, rather than the merely physiological effects of what we eat, thus influence caloric intake and the sensation of appetite,” says the expert. .
At present, the mechanisms of hunger are the subject of regular study for neuroscience , with the ultimate aim of combating obesity and the appearance of ailments associated with overweight such as type 2 diabetes. In addition to the aforementioned ghrelin, the insulin and leptin, a hormone secreted by the fat cells of our body that produces a feeling of satiety. For example, it is known that the desire to eat that suddenly seizes us at night and leads us to raid the refrigerator is due to lack of sleep altering the ratio between the levels of ghrelin and leptin as a defensive response of the body , that seeks in this way to increase energy stores. It remains to be seen whether we can control these impulses with “tricks” like the ones recently uncovered by British researchers.
