Eating fruits makes you hungrier?

Scientists have discovered why you may experience that feeling of emptiness in your stomach after eating a fruit salad. Writing for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of Southern California found that the naturally occurring sugar in fruit, fructose, leaves people feeling hungrier and desiring more food.

Twenty-four volunteers were asked to view images of high-calorie foods and non-food items whilst ingesting either fructose or glucose. They were then asked to rate their hunger and desire for food.

The researchers found that those who had ingested fructose had greater hunger levels than those who ingested glucose. The researchers said the findings suggest that “ingestion of fructose relative to glucose results in greater activation of brain regions involved in attention and reward processing and may promote feeding behaviour”.