Researchers found that melanin-concentrating hormone neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens enhance food's reward value without increasing consumption, highlighting distinct roles in non-hunger-driven eating behaviors.

A recent study in Japan has found that the effectiveness of GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs, such as Ozempic, in managing type 2 diabetes may depend on why individuals overeat. Researchers followed 92 people with diabetes over a year, examining their eating behaviors and treatment outcomes. The study distinguished between external eating, where people eat because food looks or smells appealing, and emotional eating, where people eat to cope with stress or negative feelings. Results showed that participants who primarily engaged in external eating experienced significant weight loss and better blood sugar control on GLP-1 therapy, while those with emotional eating habits saw fewer benefits. Early reductions in external and emotional eating were observed, but only external eating reductions persisted over the full year. The researchers suggest that GLP-1 medications are more effective for people whose overeating is triggered by external cues rather than psychological factors. They also emphasize that emotional eaters might require additional behavioral or psychological support to achieve similar outcomes. The study highlights the potential value of assessing eating behaviors before starting GLP-1 therapy to predict treatment success, though further large-scale studies are needed to confirm these findings.

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Preschool children aged 3–5 successfully used the Teddy the Bear pictorial scale to rate hunger before and after meals, supporting its validity for group-level research. However, younger children, esp...

Neurons found in one of the oldest regions of the brain may control when we stop eating a meal, new research in mice hints.