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May 13, 2008 3:18:34 AM CDT

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Hormone Makes Food More Appetizing  

Posted May 7, 08 3:35 PM CDT in Science & Health    Editor's Choice

(newser) – What makes people eat more than their bodies need? It might have a lot to do with the hormone ghrelin, a new study at McGill University finds. The chemical tells the brain to find food more appealing, and causes hunger, LiveScience reports. Work has already started on ghrelin-blocking drugs, but the probability of severe effects on mood is a significant hurdle.

"When you go to the supermarket hungry, every food looks better," said researcher Alain Dagher, a neurologist at McGill. "Now, we've found that it is ghrelin that acts on the brain to make food more appealing." He added: "Obesity must be understood as a brain disease. Obese people eat too much, and this is likely due largely to excess hunger."

Source LiveScience

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Hormone Makes Food More Appetizing
Ghrelin is evolutionarily useful because it can make starving people eat normally unappetizing things, but in times of plenty it may cause you to gorge.   (Flickr)
Hormone Makes Food More Appetizing
If your ghrelin levels are up when you look at this, you're more likely to note the details and remember them later, a new study finds.   (Flickr)
Hormone Makes Food More Appetizing
Study participants who received ghrelin injections were better able to remember images of food than those who got placebo shots.   (Flickr)
Hormone Makes Food More Appetizing
Study participants who received injections of ghrelin were better able to recognize pictures of food than those who got placebo shots.   (Flickr)
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