How much is too much? Does obesity change the way your brain views food?

Obesity may impact not only physical health but also the brain’s capacity to distinguish fullness and experience satisfaction after consuming fats and carbohydrates. A recent study found that brain changes may persist even when medically obese individuals lose a large amount of weight, which also explains why many people frequently gain back the weight they lose. The research, which was released on Monday in Nature Metabolism, continues to illustrate how complicated and long-lasting the metabolic repercussions of obesity are. According to the study’s authors, an obese person’s eating habits are influenced by the changes that obesity has on their brain. Let’s take a closer look. Also read: A Big Fat Problem: How more than half the world is set to become obese and why this is dangerous No sign of reversibility Obesity is defined medically as having a body mass index, or BMI, of over 30, whereas normal weight is defined as having a BMI of between 18 and 25. Dr Caroline Apovian, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told CNN, “There was no sign of reversibility — the brains of people with obesity continued to lack the chemical responses that tell the body, ‘OK, you ate enough.’” In this controlled clinical study, 30 participants were classified as medically obese and 30 others were of normal weight. They were given sugary carbs (glucose), fatty substances (lipids), or water (as a control). On different days, a feeding tube was used to administer each set of nutrients straight into the stomach. The release of the hormone dopamine, which reflects the motivation and pleasure a person obtains from food, could be observed using SPECT, while the brain’s reaction to nutrients could be observed using MRI. The researchers discovered that normal weight individuals’ brains released more dopamine and reacted to the foods more vigorously than obese individuals’ brains. According to the study’s lead author, Dr Mireille Serlie, an endocrinology professor at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, “These findings suggest that sensing of nutrients in the stomach and gut and/or of nutritional signals is reduced in obesity, and this might have profound consequences for food intake.” Additionally, the obese participants had their body weight decreased by 10 per cent over the course of the following weeks before having their brains scanned once more. The researchers were taken aback when their brain’s ability to recognise foods and produce dopamine didn’t return to normal. Nothing changed, according to Serlie, as the brain was still unable to register feelings of fullness or satisfaction. “Now, you might say three months is not long enough, or they didn’t lose enough weight.” This suggests that obesity creates long-lasting alterations in a person’s brain that affect a person’s eating habits. This could be the reason so many obese people find it difficult to adjust their diet and gain weight even after losing it once. “But this finding might also explain why people lose weight successfully and then regain all the weight a few years later — the impact on the brain may not be as reversible as we would like it to be.” Also read: Burn that Fat: What is berberine, the weight loss supplement TikTokers are calling 'nature's Ozempic'? The link between food intake and brain activity Cravings frequently originate from your brain delivering signals that your body is under stress, is lacking in nourishment, is dehydrated, or has low blood sugar. When one eats the food, she/he was craving, their body feels satisfied, since a good amount of dopamine is released. However, if they don’t feel good even after eating the meal they were craving, then the body probably didn’t need it to begin with. In the case of obese people, this is what might take place. Since obesity impairs their brain’s capacity to completely sense the nutrients and reward them with a sufficient release of dopamine, they are likely to eat more of the thing they crave to make themselves feel better. According to Interesting Engineering, the researchers found that a person’s food intake is influenced by a web of different metabolic and neural pathways. The researcher writes that “this network regulates food intake as well as the motivation to seek out food” and “triggers sensations of hunger and satiation.” “All too often, people think that if you’re overweight, it’s really simple, just stop eating and you lose weight — problem solved,” said Paul Kenny, chair of the Department of Neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and an expert on the neurological causes of obesity. The difficulty is brought up in papers like this one. “When you consume certain foods that result in weight gain, that can actually remodel the brain and how the brain works and those changes can be very long-lasting,” Kenny, who was not involved in the new paper, told STAT News. “And those long-lasting changes presumably are influencing your choices regarding food in the future." Scientists have only been able to investigate these networks in animals up until this point. However, given their association with fat, it might also be simple to investigate them in people. Hopefully, the new research will advance understanding of how obesity affects these pathways and plays a critical part in long-term eating behaviour shaping. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.