Diet Killer: Can Ghrelin the "Hunger Hormone" be Stopped?

(CBS) You were trying to diet but just couldn't resist the siren song of the office birthday cake. It's not your fault - blame it on a gremlin called ghrelin.

Ghrelin is the "hunger hormone" that triggers intense food cravings - especially for high-calorie foods. But the results of a new study suggest that it might be possible to develop a pill to block ghrelin.

"It raises the possibility that drugs that block the action of ghrelin may help reduce cravings for high-calorie foods and to help people lose weight," Dr. Tony Goldstone, an endocrinologist at Imperial College London and one of the authors of the study, said in a written statement.

The study also suggests that ghrelin might be the reason a person who skips breakfast finds high-calorie foods more appealing than low-calorie foods.

In the study, 18 healthy men and women were shown pictures of high-calorie and low-calorie food on three separate mornings and asked to rate them.

The group that didn't eat breakfast and was injected with ghrelin had a serious craving for the bad stuff like chocolate, cake and pizza.

"Ghrelin mimicked fasting in biasing food appeal toward high-calorie foods," Goldstone said in the statement. "Changes in which foods we prefer to eat when missing meals may be explained by changes in the levels of ghrelin in our blood to help regulate our overall calorie intake."

Several drug companies are working double-time to develop a pill to go head-to-head against the hunger hormone, Goldstone told HealthDay.

And so the search for weight-loss magic continues.