Why sweetness - your assistant in the control of eating habits

When you eat sweets, the brain remembers what you ate. So say researchers at the University of Georgia, University of Regents in Georgia and Charlie Norwood Medical Center. Their findings were published in the journal Hippocampus.

It turns out that neurons in the hippocampus - part of the brain that is responsible for episodic memory - are activated when you eat sweet. A episodic memory includes memories of events that happened at a certain time in a certain place.

In the study, rats were given sweetened with sucrose or saccharin solution and this significantly increased the expression of markers of synaptic plasticity (protein Arc) in rat hippocampal neurons. Synaptic plasticity - the machinery needed to create memories.

We believe that episodic memory can be used to control eating behavior. We make decisions whether we eat today, based on the memories of when and what we eat. For example: I do not want to eat, because breakfast is tight.

Maris Parent (Marise Parent)

This conclusion is supported by previous work of researchers. They temporarily inactivated the neurons of the hippocampus immediately after feeding rats sweet food. This is the time needed to form memories about food. Inactivation of neurons brought nearer the beginning of the next meal, the rats ate more.

Forming memories of food is important for human health. Disrupt "food storage" in the body can, for example, viewing show at dinner. The next meal people eat more. People with amnesia will eat again, if you offer them, even though they ate the same food. They just do not remember it.

Maris Parent believes that scientists have finally figure out how the brain controls the power and frequency, in order to understand the causes of obesity.

Studies claim that obesity causes an increase in the number of snacks. Obese people are more likely to chew anything in between between meals. In the last three decades, children and adults receive the most daily calories from snacks consisting mainly of desserts and sweet drinks.

In the future, a group of researchers wanted to determine if a balanced diet can, which contains proteins, fats and carbohydrates, as well influence Arc protein expression in hippocampal neurons and whether the protein expression of Arc really need to remember the fact of consumption sweets.