High-fat, High-sugar Foods Alter Brain Receptors

Dr. Bello and colleagues report that either continuous eating or binge eating a high fat, high sugar diet alters opioid receptor levels in an area of the brain that controls food intake. Opioids are a family of chemicals with actions similar to those of morphine; however, opioids exist naturally in the brain and have been linked to feelings of pleasure and euphoria. “These results are interesting because we saw changes in opioid receptor gene expression in a brain area that controls how much we eat during a meal”, said Bello.

The new findings suggest that overconsumption of highly palatable foods maintains bingeing by enhancing opioids in the brain, and that increased opioids could be a factor involved in binge eating disorders. These findings may help to understand the biological basis of eating disorders.

This research was supported by NIH DK19302 and DK078484.

The lead author was Nicholas Bello, Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.

  Co-authors were F. CASSEUS, M.T. CHUANG, B.A. MITCHELL, Z.W. PATINKIN, P. SINGH, T.H. MORAN. Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Dept. Psychiatry and Behavioral Sci., Baltimore, MD, USA