DOCTOR’S NOTE

OVEREATING may change the brain by altering a key feeding suppression system, says a study.

Eating too much can erode the mind’s natural controls on food intake, leading to neurological alterations which fuel obesity and pathological overconsumption, according to research on mice.

The findings, published in the journal Science, show that neurons in obese mice on a high-fat diet were altered in a way that disrupted the body’s feeding suppression system, encouraging overeating. Obesity affects more than 500 million people worldwide and around one in four adults in the UK.