And says Dr Warren The really intriguing difference occurred when the gambling addicts won and there was money riding on the bet

And, says Dr Warren, "The really intriguing difference occurred when the gambling addicts won and there was money riding on the bet. Electrical responses became even greater with a win, and smaller if money was lost. They could either place a bet, or not.The researchers measured the "bet-sized effect" - what happened to the brain when a bet was placed. In the social gamblers the brain's electrical impulses, as might be expected, became more active when money was involved, indicating heightened excitement.

Four symbols representing card suits were flashed on to a screen in random order, with the men having to guess which the computer would pick as the winner. They found that the brainwaves of the nine addicts differed markedly from those of the social gamblers.The gamblers were wired to brain monitoring devices as they played a computer gambling game. Psychologists Dr Charles Warren and Dr Bruce McDonough of the Gambling Addiction Center at the University of Illinois, Chicago, recently compared the brains of a group of 16 social and compulsive gamblers. On these machines, set to win 20 per cent of the time, you could blow pounds 10 in 10 minutes without even noticing. Serious gambling, whether on fruit machines or in the casino, on the dogs or on the races, is almost exclusively a male activity. One per cent of adults have severe gambling problems - and they're mainly men.

Six per cent of children between 10 and 18 are addicted to fruit machines, mostly boys. Apart from bingo and, of course, the National Lottery (which has increased the number of adults who gamble once a week from 10 to 60 per cent), women are mainly bystanders.And while most men will be able to control their gambling, a sizeable minority won't.Moreover, researchers now think that, unlike social gamblers, men who gamble compulsively are indifferent to the money involved, disappointed when they win - and may even prefer to lose. They hit the start button, hardly glancing at it, eyes locked on the spinning wheels Any win is automatically reinvested. "If you come from a family with no history of major diseases you should feel comfortable about eating anything you fancy.

There is no reason to avoid eggs, butter or red meat, say, providing that you don't become overweight.". There are two women present, one standing behind a man who is steering a video-game racing car, another who wanders in, plays a couple of games, and walks out The regulars are oblivious to people around them. Downstairs, a handful of men are hooked into video games; upstairs a dozen or so are bent over fruit machines. Friday lunchtime and the Crystal Rooms in London's Leicester Square are quiet.

"It's not so much a question of what you are eating," he says, "but what's eating you." Yet another perspective comes from Dr Artemis Simopoulos, director of the Centre for Genetics, Nutrition and Health in Washington.She has amassed evidence to show that it is your genes that determine whether you need to worry about fat. A recent issue of Nutrition Today warned that avoiding giving certain foods to children because they had a high fat content could lead to "nutritional deficits". What's more, a recent study at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, found that reducing saturated fat in the diet to recommended levels may add no more than three extra months to life, and possibly as little as an extra 3.5 days.A venerable fat heretic in this country is Dr Malcolm Caruthers who believes the interaction between stress, hormones and cholesterol is far more influential in determining blood-fat levels. On the other hand, people who cut out both high- and low-fat substitute foods and go for naturally lower fat foods such as bread, vegetables and fruit, reduce their craving.But does fat deserve its unhealthy reputation? Certainly children, major consumers of savoury snacks such as crisps, need it. They were free to eat whatever they wanted the rest of the day. On low-fat days, the subjects had made up the calorie difference by dinner time.When dieters consciously have something low in fat they feel free to have a little treat later.