SAN DIEGO — New animal research helps explain why some eat without hunger or to excess. The studies explore the biological effects of poor eating habits, showing that high-fat diets cause lasting brain changes that may impair healthy eating. Additional studies show that food and drugs of abuse engage many of the same brain systems. The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2010, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news on brain science and health.
More than one billion adults worldwide are overweight, according to the World Health Organization. With increased risk for chronic disease and rising health care costs tied to obesity, today's studies are valuable in helping generate future prevention and treatment techniques.
Specifically, today's new findings show that:
Other recent findings discussed show that:
"Life experiences change the nervous system, and today's findings demonstrate why regulating food intake and body weight is such a challenge," said press conference moderator Ralph DiLeone, PhD, of Yale University School of Medicine, an expert on the neural mechanisms of food intake and behavior.
This research was supported by national funding agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health, as well as private and philanthropic organizations.