Can’t lose weight? Blame your brain
December 22 between the Northern Spirit and Wellington Blaze, and Knights and Firebirds. It is believed some associations recoiled when faced with the prospect of trying to match ND.
While the ND and Auckland associations are financially secure, the remaining major associations essentially lived hand-to-mouth. Even gentle increases in the expenditure column create accounting conundrums.
The issue comes at an awkward juncture. A 2016 report painted a damning picture of NZC’s handling of the women’s game and was followed by promises of change.
Throw in the celebrations for 125 years of women’s suffrage celebrations and the Equal Pay Amendment Bill introduced to Parliament last month and it could not be a worse time to appear to be paying lip-service to that commitment.
A source in the domestic game said: “NZC is a $60 million business, however they refuse to stump up money to pay domestic women players anything despite the Australian and English players getting paid fairly.
“This is the first time there will be a direct comparison made between men and women — same day, same ground, same game but women get paid nothing.” A new study has found the structure of your grey matter can determine whether you stick to a diet.
Brain scans showed that some people have stronger signals coming from the region of the brain that plays a role in self-control.
Until now, most evidence has suggested that an imbalance in hormones that increase the desire to eat causes people to fall off the weight-loss wagon.
But a team from McGill University, in Montreal, Canada, says their findings add another layer: that activity in the brain's “control” region overrides these hormones — but they insist there are therapeutic techniques to help people with weaker control become successful dieters.
For the study, the researchers recruited 24 participants and studied them at a weight-loss clinic for three months.
They were shown pictures of both appetising foods and scenery while researchers studied the brain activity as they viewed. When the subjects looked at pictures of food, the region of the brain linked to desire became more active.
“We found that the control of body weight is dependent largely on the areas of the brain involved in selfcontrol and self-regulation,' said Dr Alain Dagher, a professor of psychology at McGill University.
In good news for dieters, he added that there were ways to change brain structure such as cognitive behavioral therapy.
NZ Cricket is under pressure to back up its commitment to the women’s game.