Men and Calories

Winter may be seen as the time [blank] fill up with comfort food, but in fact, the sunny summer months are when men eat more calories - unlike women. The effect may occur [blank] sunlight makes the skin release an appetite-stimulating hormone called Ghrelin, says Carmit Levy at Tel Aviv University in Israel. Levy and her team noticed an unexpected effect [blank] experiments in mice that investigated the mechanisms behind skin cancer, in which male animals exposed to UV light ate more food. To see [blank] humans do the same, the researchers used existing data on about 3000 people who had filled in detailed dietary questionnaires as part [blank] the Israeli government's regular national health and nutrition survey. Between March and September, men consumed about 17 per cent more calories per day than they did during the rest of the year, while women's food [blank] stayed about the same.