Have a good sleep!

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found that there is a link between sleep and obesity.

 

The study, published in the August issue of Nature Communications, uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain activity in relation to food choices among sleep-deprived individuals.

 

They found an increased activity in the amygdala, which spurs the urge to eat and a decreased activity in the frontal cortex, the region of the brain responsible for the rational processing of decisions and consequences. These changes in brain activity were associated with a significant increase in the desire for weight-gain promoting, high-calorie foods following sleep deprivation. Moreover, the effects were more pronounced in participants with the most severe sleep deprivation.

 

What’s especially interesting about this study is that the brain activity observed in sleep-deprived individuals was not merely associated with an increase in appetite, but a specific increase in desire for high-calorie foods, “resulting in the selection of foods most capable of triggering weight gain.”

 

Hence losing sleep can lead to gaining weight. And how to get enough sleep should be included into the program for healthy weight loss!

 

Besides sleep, vitamin D deficiency is also closely linked with obesity, although it appears that obesity causes the deficiency and not the other way around. Low vitamin D levels have been linked with disturbances in glucose metabolism and dyslipidemia.