We can all think of times when we have gobbled down food without
even really tasting it. But could that kind of high speed eating
contribute to weight gain? This is the question being posed by
researchers working in Europe’s most advanced ‘flab lab’, a unit
that does hi-tech research into obesity. Its official name is a
whole body calorimeter and scientists at the University Hospital
Coventry and the University of Warwick are hoping it will help
them have a better understanding of how food, exercise,
medicines and sleep affect our weight. One of their first
experiments is into the speed of eating, the way it changes
appetite, and the rate at which energy is burned up. Helga Perry
is one of about a dozen patients taking part. She will spend
three separate days in the lab, which is an air-locked chamber
that makes very precise calculations of how much energy she
burns. On day one of the experiment, she will eat lunch in 10
minutes, on the second day she will be told to take 20 minutes,
and on a third, she will