Scientists at the University of California found that the factors for obesity are different for men and women. The results of the research were published in the journal Brain Communication.
The team collected a sample of nearly 200 people aged 18 to 55. All participants filled out questionnaires in which they talked about the presence or absence of childhood trauma, anxiety, food addiction, etc. Each participant also underwent three different brain MRI scans.
Based on the results of the study, the scientists identified areas of the brain in women with early trauma-related changes. This supports the thesis that obese women may be more anxious than men. They are less resistant to the look, smell, and taste of ultra-processed foods, making them more likely to stop eating them.
Therefore, emotion-related binge eating appears to play an important role in obesity in women. This addiction was not found in men, paying more attention to how their guts respond to various foods.
“Although the causal relationship is unknown, the strong associations between clinical markers such as anxiety, depression, obesity, and neural signatures point to the importance of bidirectional mechanical gut-brain communication,” the scientists said.