Recent Research Links “Mood, Food and Obesity”

A review of recent research focused on food consumption and mood regulation
has reported that complex biological factors engage both the peripheral
and central nervous system “in a bi-directional manner linking food intake,
mood, and obesity.” Minati Singh, “Mood, Food and Obesity,” Frontiers in
Psychology, September 2014. Summarizing human and animal studies, the
article addresses the following topics: (i) the relationship between stress,
mood and food intake, (ii) the relationship between mood, food preference
and obesity; (iii) “food reward, addiction and obesity”; (iv) “society and food
addiction”; (v) the roles of ghrelin, serotonin, leptin, adiponectin, resistin, and
insulin in regulating food, mood and obesity; and (vi) “epigenetics, mood and
eating disorders.”

“Many people find it hard to stop eating a particular food even though they
are not hungry,” explains the article author. “Such behaviors activate the brain
reward center and alter the brain structure… Through neurobiological data,
presence of food cravings, over eating, and tolerance support an addiction-like
model by numerous signals that are involved in engaging both the central
and peripheral nervous system in a bi-directional manner to regulate food
intake.”

Issue 538