FOOD-WEIGHT RELATIONSHIP-A GENETIC NEXUS!

One of the riddles that has been defying rational scientific explanation is why some people gain weight while others are immune to weight gain when same amount of food with identical composition is consumed. It is too common to hear many people lamenting about their body system that does not readily respond to reduction of calories though physical exercise has often been cited as the most important critical factor that decides how much body weight is put on from a given diet. According to some recent scientific studies such aberrations can be explained by the peculiarities of the genes present in people whose response to food intake defies current logic. Here is a take on this new development vis-a-vis obesity epidemic that is haunting the world to day.   

The mice were eating their usual chow and exercising normally, but they were getting fat anyway. The reason: researchers had deleted a gene that acts in the brain and controls how quickly calories are burned. Even though they were consuming exactly the same number of calories as lean mice, they were gaining weight. So far, only one person — a severely obese child — has been found to have a disabling mutation in the same gene. But the discovery of the same effect in mice and in the child — a finding published Wednesday in the journal Science — may help explain why some people put on weight easily while others eat all they want and seem never to gain an ounce. It may also offer clues to a puzzle in the field of obesity: Why do studies find that people gain different amounts of weight while overeating by the same amount? Scientists have long thought explanations for why some people get fat might lie in their genes. They knew body weight was strongly inherited. Years ago, for example, they found that twins reared apart tended to have similar weights and adoptees tended to have weights like their biological parents, not the ones who reared them. As researchers developed tools to look for the actual genes, they found evidence that many — maybe even hundreds — of genes may be involved, stoking appetites, making people voraciously hungry. This rare gene-disabling mutation, though, is intriguing because it seems to explain something different, a propensity to pile on pounds even while eating what should be a normal amount of food. Investigators are now searching for other mutations of the same gene in fat people that may have a similar, but less extreme effect. The hope is that in the long term, understanding how this gene affects weight gain might lead to treatments for obesity that alter the rate at which calories are burned. "The history of obesity for many many years has been one of blaming people for lack of self control," said Dr. Joseph Majzoub, chief of endocrinology at Boston Children's Hospital and lead author of the new paper. "If some of it is due to a slow metabolism, that would completely change the perspectives of parents and patients. It really would change the way we think of the disease."

Of course the above findings are only an indicator that needs to be pursued further but it definitely gives hope of tackling obesity ultimately at the gene level. It is some what scary to know that slow metabolic system can make the utilization of dietary components more efficient resulting in accumulation of weight and such situation can exist in many people with mutated genes, either inherited or formed during early childhood. Probably genetic scientists need to pursue this line of research much more vigorously to clinch the issue with least delay. If such studies can result in evolving tools to attack diseases like diabetes and obesity through genetic manipulation, mankind will greatly be benefited!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

FATTY FOODS AND FLAVOR PERCEPTION-NEW FINDINGS

Food research is supposed to bring about better foods with better nutrition and health promoting properties. It is another matter that the R & D by the consumer food industry has a different take on this issue. After investing heavily in food processing enterprises, industry naturally wants to increase its business volume by enticing more consumers to better tasting foods with high sensory stimulation. If high sugar and high fat foods dominate the market to day the reason is not far to seek and it is a well established fact that human beings, especially kids are attracted and addicted to foods containing high amounts of sugar and fat. In an interesting study recently, scientists were able to peep into the human brain to understand how it reacts to ingestion of different foods and the findings were indeed amazing. If the interpretation of the results of studies as propounded by the scientists is to be taken at its face value, the capacity of the human brain to react and response to the sensory aspects of a food progressively diminishes with increased fat content of foods consumed. This finding has both negative and positive implications for the industry and the consumer. Here is a take on this interesting area of food-brain relationship.

"Fat can reduce activity in several brain areas responsible for processing taste, aroma and reward, says the first ever study on the subject. The research, carried out by the Britain's University of Nottingham and food major Unilever, provides the food industry with better understanding of how in the future it might be able to make healthier, less fatty food products without affecting their overall taste and enjoyment. This three-year study investigated how the brains of a group of participants in their 20s would respond to changes in the fat content of four different fruit emulsions they tasted while under an MRI scanner, the journal Chemosensory Perception reports. All four samples were of the same thickness and sweetness, but one contained flavour with no fat, while the other three contained fat with different flavour release properties, according to a Nottingham statement. The areas of the participants' brains which are responsible for the perception of flavour, were significantly more activated when the non-fatty sample was tested compared to the fatty emulsions despite having the same flavour perception. Joanne Hort, associate professor in sensory science at Nottingham said: "This is the first brain study to assess the effect of fat on the processing of flavour perception." Unilever food scientist Johanneke Busch, based in Vlaardingen, Netherlands, added: "There is more to people's enjoyment of food than the product's flavour, like its mouthfeel, its texture and whether it satisfies hunger, so this is a very important building block for us to better understand how to innovate and manufacture healthier food products which people want to buy."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

There are a couple of aspects of this study which deserves further attention. Association of a multinational food giant like Unilever is praiseworthy because this study proves that high fat foods, as being marketed to day are not good, affecting the natural working of the brain. The fact that the so called "lean foods" allow the brain to appreciate the flavor of foods better leaves adequate scope to develop better flavored foods with low fat contents. Naturally such foods presumably are better tuned to good health. On the negative side, industry might be tempted to invest less on improvement products by just hiking the sugar and fat contents in their new products. Of course such strategy may not work any more as the consumers are becoming increasingly conscious about sound nutrition and good health.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com