Wed, Jan-17-18, 13:31
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Senior Member
Posts: 15,075
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Plan: mostly milkfat
Stats: 190/152.4/154
BF:
Progress: 104%
Location: Ontario
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https://www.nhs.uk/news/neurology/s...tarvation-mode/
Quote:
"Alcohol switches the brain into starvation mode, increasing hunger and appetite, scientists have discovered," BBC News reports.
Research in mice found alcohol increased activity in a set of brain cells used to regulate appetite.
Scientists have long been puzzled about why people often eat more when they've been drinking alcohol, despite the high number of calories in alcoholic drinks. Alcohol is second only to fat in its calorie density.
The body's regulatory system should register calories arriving in the body, so that the person would not feel hungry. But with alcohol the opposite happens – people feel hungry and eat more.
Researchers found that mice ate more when given alcohol. They saw spikes in electrical activity in Agouti-related peptide cells (AGRP cells) from the mice brains when they were exposed to alcohol. AGRP cells are specialised brain cells the body uses to regulate appetite. While hunger may hit you in your stomach, the entire process of "hunger, eat, reward" is controlled by your brain.
When the mice's AGRP cells were chemically blocked, they no longer ate more when given alcohol.
Research in animals doesn't always translate to humans, so we don't know for sure if this means the same thing happens in human brains. However, it is plausible.
It's also a reminder that if you're trying to watch your weight – alcohol will set you back in more ways than one; it is chock full of calories in its own right, and it may well make you eat more on top.
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