Image from: CNN
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/18/your-brain-on-food-obesity-fasting-and-addiction/?hpt=he_t4
How to live healthy is common interest of all people. However, obesity has limited the movement of living healthy. Due to human tendency to crave sugar and abundant food supply in 21st century, people are getting fat. For example, in the United States and Canada has adult obesity rate is 35.7% and 17% respectively. In the case of the United State, obesity is very serious problem since one third of its entire population is obese. As it is well known, obesity is the main cause of diseases such as heart diseases and high blood pressure levels. However, new study reports that obesity could also impact in lowering brain function. Therefore, this blog is created to illustrate how obesity affects brain function.
Future Obesity Rate in the U.S. (video link)
Researchers at the University of Turku and Aalto University explained how obesity alters brain function. Mid-region of the brain called striatum uses glucose for its metabolism and commands the body to obtain sugars. In obese individuals, striatum is over-activated causing excessive intake of sugars. Meanwhile, increase in activity of striatum decrease prefrontal cortex (front part of brain) function where cognitive function is controlled. Professor Lauri Nummenmma from University of Turku explains cognitive function is suppressed by the overly activated striatum and preventing the body from controlling amount of sugar intake.
Picture retrieved from:
http://www.impactlab.net/2012/10/17/how-diet-affects-brain-function-revealed-in-studies/
Timothy Verstynen reported at the Society for Neuroscience that obesity reduces cognitive function. Verstynen gathered 29 participants with different body mass ranging from normal weight to obese and asked them to solve questions. Based on the brain image of all participants in the study, the brain activity was observed greater in obese group than the lean group to solve the same questions. What this indicates is that obese participants are inefficiently solving a question. Therefore, obese population has more difficult time in solving complex tasks than those of lean population.
Video: How Obesity Affects Brain function in teens (specific case)
The common dieting method among the people is to fast. However, the result is not promising. Tony Goldstone claims that skipping breakfast could result gaining of weight. This is because skipping breakfast activates specific brain region called orbitofrontal cortex, located at the frontal side of the brain. Upon activation, it commands the body to eat high calorie foods. However, having a breakfast lowers the activation and prevents the body from eating high calorie foods. In general, obese population has their orbitofrontal cortex overly activated, craving them for higher calorie foods and preventing from losing weight. Therefore, obesity not only cause gaining of weight but also manipulates the normal brain function.
In conclusion, it is found that being obese does not only cause a heart disease but also reduces the brain function. For example, obese individuals are less efficient in solving a problem than the lean individuals. Therefore, it is very important to have healthy and low calorie foods to keep both brain and body in a good shape.
By Young Ryu
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