Obese: Delayed Food Response
An obesity study made by University of California scientists indicates that obese people are liable to feel satiety much later than an average person. The research conducted by Yijun Liu, an assistant professor in the psychiatry department of the McKnight Brain Institute shows that while most people begin to experience satiety about 10 minutes after they begin to eat, for obese people there is a considerable delay in the transmission of that message.
The Study into Delayed Food Response
The University of California researchers have identified how changes in the hormone levels within the body correspond to the time the brain requires responding to it. Employing neuroimaging for scanning the brains of 10 obese and 20 people who have a normal body weight and the researchers concluded that obese people took considerably longer to feel satisfied.
Obesity is known to cause more than 30,000 deaths in the United States every year. This fact becomes also the more grave considering that the number of premature deaths caused by obesity is second only to those caused by tobacco consumption.
Approximately 350 scans were conducted on the volunteers over a period of 35 minutes. The volunteers were injected with glucose intravenously after five minutes to initiate the body’s response to the fluids.
In obese people, the hypothalamic region of the brain reacted much later and in a much weaker manner with a delay ranging from about 4 to 9 minutes when compared to the same response in a person of normal body weight.
Through the same research it was discovered that the savoring of palatable delicacies causes changes in the brain that bear an affinity to those sparked off by cocaine and other drugs of abuse. This lends further credibility to the notion that inability to control food consumption leads to changes in the brain as caused by the uncontrollable addiction to drugs of abuse.
The disorder to control consumption of food as well as drugs of abuse leads to identical behaviors and feelings. It results in failure to control one’s craving, unrestricted consumption and denial. This is evident from the symptoms of patients suffering from anorexia, bulimia as well obesity.
Implications of the Research on Delayed Food Response
The outcome of the research implies, obesity can also be attributed to the incapacity to experience satiety or the delay in feeling satisfied. Besides, it also establishes that the human brain has fewer means to determine “when” which are far less developed than the stimuli that cause the desire for consumption.
This study also provides sufficient evidence of the similarity between the sensations caused by the consumption of tempting delicacies and drugs of abuse. It can help physicians to address the problem of obesity and in understanding how to rectify health related issues.
Suggested Remedies
Remedies suggested to counter the delayed response in experiencing satisfaction require behavioral changes such as eating when hungry, consuming food gradually, and attempting to savor food in lesser quantities.
