Comfort Eating Triggered by Hunger Hormone

Indulging in high-calorie, fatty foods is a very widespread method of responding to stress. Many of those who are now obese exerted very poor self-control when subjected to such situations. Now, experts determine that the hunger hormone ghrelin is responsible for this behavior.

Granted, the chemical agent is only responsible for initiating the urge, but it's people's job to resist the temptation, and stay healthy. Unhealthy eating behavior is the leading cause of obesity, especially in the developed world.

The new research was conducted on unsuspecting mice, but holds relevance on humans because of the similarities the two species exhibit as far as the effects of ghrelin go, PsychCentral reports.

Details of the new research have already appeared online in the esteemed scientific Journal of Clinical Investigation, and are scheduled to appear in print in an upcoming issue of the magazine as well.

The new study “helps explain certain complex eating behaviors and may be one of the mechanisms by which obesity develops in people exposed to psychosocial stress,” explains Dr. Jeffrey Zigman.

“We think these findings are not just abstract and relevant only to mice, but likely are also relevant to humans.,” adds the expert, who is based at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Zigman is also the senior author of the study. His lab is one of the first to indicate that chronic stress can influence hunger hormones, boosting ghrelin levels, and setting the stage for comfort eating.

“Our findings show that ghrelin signaling is crucial to this particular behavior and that the increase in ghrelin which occurs as a result of chronic stress is probably behind these food-reward behaviors,” Zigman argues.

In the new experiments, the scientists trained two groups of mice to find comfort food, and then subjected them to stressful experiences. The mice in the group that was stressed showed a much larger tendency to search for fatty foods.

Mice in the second group – that had been genetically-engineered not to express ghrelin – showed absolutely no preference for comfort foods following their ordeals, the team says. Experts sought for multiple connections, investigating several other substances as well.

Such researches are extremely welcome considering the rampant spread of the obesity epidemic in developed country. The United States are leading the way, with 34 percent of the population either obese or morbidly obese, an additional third overweight, and just 33 percent of normal weight.