Pleasant Dietary Habits Are Necessary For Health
Japanese research group led by Professor Yasuhiko Minokoshi and Dr. Tetsuya Shiuchi, scientists at the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, NIPS, Japan, found that meals stimulated with sweet taste and motivated with its anticipation regularly activates “orexin” in the brain and it stimulates muscle glucose metabolism via the sympathetic nervous system, thereby reducing blood glucose level in mice. They report their finding in Cell Metabolism published on Dec 2, 2009.
The research group focused on the function of “orexin” neurons in brain. Orexin is a kind of brain hormones related to sleep/wakefulness and food intake. They found that orexin released in the brain from “orexin” neurons activates glucose metabolism in muscle but not adipose tissue in mice through the preferential activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Furthermore, they found that a pleasant meal with sweet taste stimulation and its anticipation activates orexin neurons and curbs the rise of blood glucose level by activating muscle metabolism via the sympathetic nervous system. Read more
It Can Be Predicted The Reaction Obese Patients Will Have To A Diet
The presence of increased body fat, and therefore higher levels of inflammatory substances in the blood, hinders the loss and maintenance of body weight; as shown by a research project of the University of Navarra conducted by EstÃbaliz Goyenechea Soto, a scientist at the School of Pharmacy.
The project, entitled “A nutrigenetic and nutrigenomic study in relation to the control of body weight and inflammation,” examines how the individual genetics of obese patients can help or hinder weight loss when dieting and even influence the subsequent long term maintenance of their weight loss.
Some overweight or obese people have mutated or altered genes that initially make it difficult to lose weight and later make it easier to regain lost body weight in a period of six months or a year. This problem occurs similarly in patients who have higher levels of inflammatory substances in their blood. Read more