Appetite and the Brain

I hesitate writing about some of the biology related to eating and weight because I don’t want readers to feel that their biology is fixed and a done deal. There are genetic and metabolic factors which strongly influence appetite and body size, but lifestyle still plays a large role in both. I blog about biology because I want readers to be well informed. The article “Gut brain link tied to overeating” by Cristy Gelling (Science News, 10/5/13) describes how overeating can be, in part, caused by faulty communication between the gut and brain. Experiments on mice may lead to a strategy of repairing that faulty communication in compulsive eaters. Here’s the gist of the study done with mice based on the supposition that “the more food a person consumes, the less responsive the brain becomes to the pleasure of eating.” In these experiments, it turns out that “by restoring normal communication between the gut and brain, researchers resensitized overfed rodents to the pleasures of both fatty and healthy foods.” The articles explains that, “In the brain, a chemical called dopamine surges in response to pleasurable experiences like eating, having sex and taking certain drugs. But brain-scanning studies suggest that obese individuals have muted dopamine responses to food. The changes could lead overeaters to seek more and more food to get a pleasurable response.” Researchers suspect that a specific molecule modifies appetite. When given to overfed mice, “the m...
Source: Normal Eating - Category: Eating Disorders Authors: Source Type: blogs