The number of individuals who are obese and suffer with its associated health problems has reached epidemic levels. One factor behind this is that we are constantly surrounded by high-calorie foods and/or images of these foods. Robert Sherwin and colleagues, at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, have now visualized differences in the way that the brains of obese and nonobese individuals respond to visual cues of high-calorie foods.

Sherwin and colleagues found that in nonobese individuals with low levels of glucose in their blood, certain regions of the brain were triggered in response to food cues and the individuals had a great desire for high-calorie foods. If these individuals had a normal level of glucose in their blood, different regions of the brain were triggered by the food cures and the individuals were less interested in high-calorie foods. Importantly, this ability of normal levels of glucose in the blood to reduce desire for high-calorie foods was not present in individuals who were obese.

You can read more about this in our article entitled Obese People's Brains Less Able To Control Impulse To Eat Than Thin People.