When you're reaching for comfort food, a plate of oily chips will always have more allure than a salad.
Yet, in a world where fatty foods are perceived to provide more flavour and sublime satisfaction than their low-fat alternatives, an optimistic study has found that the brain may be less inclined to love fat than we thought.
As part of a joint study with food company Unilever, researchers at The University of Nottingham investigated how fat content levels triggered changes in brain activity.
Their results found that fat in food can reduce activity in several areas of the brain that are responsible for processing taste, aroma and reward, which is good news for a world facing an obesity pandemic.
Using MRI scans, researchers noted that the more ‘fatty’ a sample of fruit became, the less activity was recorded in areas responsible for the perception of flavour, such as the somatosensory cortices and the anterior, mid & posterior insula.
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In a statement, academics suggest the research, available in the Springer journal Chemosensory Perception, could provide the food industry with better understanding of how it might be able to make healthier, less fatty food products without negatively affecting their overall taste and enjoyment.
Dr Joanne Hort, Associate Professor in Sensory Science at The University of Nottingham said: "This is the first brain study to assess the effect of fat on the processing of flavour perception and it raises questions as to why fat emulsions suppress the cortical response in brain areas linked to the processing of flavour and reward.
"It remains to be determined what the implications of this suppressive effect are on feelings of hunger, satiety and reward."
During the study, volunteers were given four different fruit emulsions, which they tasted while under an MRI scanner.
All four samples were of the same thickness and sweetness, but one contained flavour with no fat, while the other three contained fat with different flavour release properties.
The researchers measured how the participants' brains responded to changes in the fat content of each portion of food.
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