After experiencing a near-miss car accident or a distressing encounter, many people turn to comfort food as a way to cope with stress and anxiety.
This emotional eating response has long been recognized, but the underlying mechanisms have remained unclear. However, recent research from Virginia Tech has shed light on the connection between threats and the desire for comfort food.
The Role of the Hypothalamus
Scientists have identified a molecule called Proenkephalin, located in a brain region known as the hypothalamus, as a key player in the process of emotional overeating.
The hypothalamus is responsible for regulating eating behavior, making it a prime candidate for investigating the link between stress and food consumption.
Stress and Emotional Overeating in Mice
To explore the role of Proenkephalin, researchers exposed mice to the odor of cat feces, a scent associated with a natural predator. This exposure triggered a threat response in the mice.
Twenty-four hours later, the mice displayed negative emotional states and overeating behavior. Brain neurons in these mice also exhibited sensitivity to high-fat foods.
To confirm the molecule’s involvement in stress-induced eating, researchers artificially activated neurons in the mice’s brains using light stimulation. This activation, without the predator scent, resulted in a similar overeating response.
Conversely, when researchers exposed the mice to the cat odor and suppressed the reaction of neurons expressing Proenkephalin, the mice did not experience a negative emotional state and did not overeat.
Implications for Therapy
The discovery of Proenkephalin’s role in stress-induced overconsumption suggests a potential target for therapy to address emotional eating.
While there is more to learn about this molecule, its identification offers a promising starting point for future research into mitigating the effects of emotionally triggered eating.
This research enhances our understanding of the connection between stress, threat responses, and comfort food cravings, providing valuable insights into the underlying mechanisms of emotional eating.
If you care about mental health, please read studies about Cannabis use disorder linked to increased risk of these mental diseases and findings of Some mental health drugs can cause rapid weight gain.
For more information about obesity, please see recent studies about low-carb keto diet could manage obesity effectively and results showing popular weight loss diet linked to heart disease and cancer.
The research findings can be found in Nature Communications.
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