Nighttime food cravings after a night out and alcohol can not only be attributed to the negligent attitude of being drunk – either a little or a lot – but rather respond to complex underlying factors in the brain. This is attested by the latest study carried out by a team of scientists from the School of Medicine and Neurology Departments of Medicine at the University of Indiana (USA), which concludes that drinking a lot makes the brain more sensitive to signals of certain foods through smell, stimulating or prompting us to eat much more than we would have done while sober .
To reach this conclusion, the researchers involved 35 non-vegetarian and non-smoking women who were within normal weight. The volunteers ingested alcohol through an IV or a saline placebo each day. The experiment showed that the brains of women who received alcohol were significantly more activated to the aromas of food than those who had received the placebo ; that is, the attraction to food was greater than normal. They also increased the amount of alcohol intake.
“ The brain can play a vital role in regulating food intake. Our study found that exposure to alcohol can both increase the brain’s sensitivity to external food signals, such as aromas, and lead to increased food consumption. Many alcoholic beverages already contain empty calories, and when you combine those calories with the aperitif effect, it can lead to an energy imbalance and possibly weight gain, ”says study co-author William Eiler.
The work, which helps to clarify the neural pathways involved in the relationship between alcohol consumption and food, has been published in the journal Obesity.
“ Often the relationship between alcohol and diet is simplistic; This study reveals a potentially more complex process and the need for more research, ”explains Martin Binks, co-author of the study.
