What does the bombardment of food imagery do to our brains and bodies? The ‘gastrophysicist’ who has worked with Heston Blumenthal explains all in an extract from his new book
Your brain is your body’s most blood-thirsty organ, using around 25% of total blood flow (or energy) – despite the fact that it accounts for only 2% of body mass. Given that our brains have evolved to find food, it should perhaps come as little surprise to discover that some of the largest increases in cerebral blood flow occur when a hungry brain is exposed to images of desirable foods. Adding delicious food aromas makes this effect even more pronounced. Within little more than the blink of an eye, our brains make a judgment call about how much we like the foods we see and how nutritious they might be. And so you might be starting to get the idea behind gastroporn.
No doubt we have all heard our stomachs rumbling when we contemplate a tasty meal. Viewing food porn can induce salivation, not to mention the release of digestive juices as the gut prepares for what is about to come. Simply reading about delicious food can have much the same effect. In terms of the brain’s response to images of palatable or highly desirable foods (food porn, in other words), research shows widespread activation of a host of brain areas, including the taste and reward areas. The magnitude of this increase in neural activity, not to mention the enhanced connectivity between brain areas, typically depends on how hungry the viewer is, whether they are dieting (ie, whether they are a restrained eater or not) and whether they are obese. (The latter, for instance, tend to show a more pronounced brain response to food images even when full.)
Related: How to trick your brain into healthy eating
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