Researchers Say Fatty Foods Flip Hunger Switch

The next time someone tells you that a cheeseburger is begging to be eaten, don’t write them off as a nut case. Scientists at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine have learned that the mere taste of fatty foods flips a hormonal switch that tells us that we are hungry. The fatty foods do that, the researchers found, by informing the body that it’s time to produce ghrelin, a hormone that optimizes nutrient metabolism and promotes
the storage of body fat. Why do we care? Because for years, scientists have believed that ghrelin was activated by biological processes that resulted from fasting. Now we know that it’s the fat, not the fast, that makes us hungry.
Lead researcher Matthias Tschöp says his finding jibes with recent
studies conducted  at the University of Virginia, which showed that during fasting, active ghrelin levels were flat, but during the presence of fat from foods, ghrelin levels peaked.
Read more about the research in a news release from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.