Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
Even when obese mice don’t feel hungry, turning on their hunger neurons with light makes them eat normally again—meaning the problem is the brain isn’t turning on the hunger signal, not that the body can’t respond to it.
Correlational
Obese mice eat less after fasting than lean mice—even when given their favorite food—and this isn’t just because they’re heavier; it’s linked to higher levels of the fat hormone leptin.
Obese mice don’t get as excited (in brain terms) when they see food—but when they lose weight, this brain response comes back, unlike their response to fat or hormones.
When mice become obese, their brain’s hunger neurons don’t respond as strongly to ghrelin—the 'hunger hormone'—so they don’t eat as much even when given extra ghrelin, and this doesn’t fix itself after they lose weight.
Obese mice don't respond as well to a gut hormone (CCK) that normally tells the brain to stop eating fat—and even after they lose weight, this blunted response doesn't come back.
When mice get obese from eating lots of fat, their brain's hunger neurons stop responding as strongly to fat in the stomach—even after they lose weight—but still respond normally to sugar or protein.
Scientists think that looking at the balance between different types of broken-down fats might help tell how much oil has been used for frying.
Descriptive
When oil is reused for frying, some unstable fat breakdown products disappear, but the stable ones they turn into don’t change much in amount.
As oil is reused for frying, a specific type of oxidized fat called E,E-hydroxy-LA becomes more common.
When oil is reused for frying, one kind of breakdown product (erythro-dihydroxy) builds up more than another (threo-dihydroxy), because it comes from a different type of fat that forms more during heating.
When you fry potato chips over and over, a specific type of fat called trans-epoxy fatty acid builds up more than other similar fats.
Hot and cold rooms change what kinds of food you crave, but they don’t make you worse at tasting or smelling food.
If you give people the option to pick cold food when it’s hot and hot food when it’s cold, they’ll eat the right amount to stay balanced—even if their body wants different things.
Your body releases slightly more hunger hormone when it’s cold and more fullness hormone when it’s hot, but these changes don’t make you eat more or less.
Even though your body feels different in hot or cold rooms, you don’t feel hungrier or less hungry—your appetite stays the same.
When it’s hot, people eat more cold dishes and drinks; when it’s cold, they eat more hot, hearty meals—even if they don’t eat more calories overall.
Because hops make gut cells release fullness signals in a lab dish, scientists think they might be used in supplements to help people feel less hungry and fight obesity.
When it’s hot, people want colder and lighter foods more; when it’s cold, they crave warmer and fattier foods—even if they don’t eat more overall.
Hops have bitter chemicals (called alpha and beta acids) that can bind to special taste receptors found in gut cells in a lab dish.
Spending a full day in very hot or very cold rooms doesn’t make people eat more or less food overall, even though their bodies react to the temperature.
When scientists block certain proteins and channels inside gut cells, the hop extract can't make those cells release fullness hormones anymore.
Mechanistic
When special taste receptors in gut cells are activated by hop compounds, the cells release more signals that tell your body you're full, and this happens because calcium levels inside the cells go up.
A hop extract makes certain gut cells release hormones that make you feel full and reduces the hormone that makes you feel hungry, by activating special taste receptors in the gut.
This is the first time anyone has tracked how the yellow pigments in perilla oil change during processing—and they found that the main one, lutein, vanishes completely when the oil is bleached.