Brain Craves High-Calorie Foods When You Skip Breakfast, Study Shows

Twenty healthy, non-obese people skip breakfast and participate in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan while looking at pictures of food. There are two groups of food: high calorie food which consisted of pizza, cake, and chocolate; and low calorie food like salad, fish and vegetables.

Surprise, surprise:

The brain's reward center lit up more vividly, or became more active, when the person saw a high-calorie food as opposed to a low-calorie choice. (The taste and smell of food can also activate the brain's reward center.)

However, when the participants ate breakfast and had the same test repeated 90 minutes after eating breakfast, the brain's reward center did not show any significantly greater activity when shown the high-calorie photos.

I know that personally, I will find chocolate more appealing than vegetables any day, even though I am a vegetarian.

Maybe it's just me ...

However, the point is this: If you eat a healthy breakfast every day, you won't be looking at the vending machine junk food with love in your eyes, causing your waistline to expand. Capisci?