How blueberries can help us to lose weight

BLUEBERRIES can help in the fight against obesity as they tell the body when to stop eating, according to new research.

Scientists say that eating fatty food tricks the brain into thinking it is still hungry as it changes the composition of good and bad bacteria in the gut.

But eating blueberries – which contain natural anti-bacteria compounds – helps reverse the changes, reminding the brain once again that it is full.

One in four adults in Britain are classified as obese and scientists argue the message is not getting through for some.

Researchers now believe fatty foods could be tricking people into thinking they are still hungry, as well as causing them to pile on the pounds.

Fatty foods achieve this by reorganising the gut-to-brain neural pathway.

High-fat diets have been known to influence the composition of bacteria in our stomachs.

The study set out to explore if this was linked to signalling between the stomach and brain.

Study author Dr Claire de La Serre, from the University of Georgia, said: “We wanted to test if foods known to have anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties could also reverse the negative effect of a high fat diet, similarly to the antibiotic treatment.”

Dr de La Serre added that specific properties of bioactive foods may be used to target and improve the microbiota composition and overall health.