Related topics: food intake · food · obesity

The search for obesity drugs targets hunger's complex chemistry

Discoveries of hormones related to weight and appetite in the '90s helped spur a search for obesity treatments targeting those hormones— with disappointing results. Now scientists are taking a new tack that could finally ...

Key chocolate ingredients could help prevent obesity, diabetes

Improved thinking. Decreased appetite. Lowered blood pressure. The potential health benefits of dark chocolate keep piling up, and scientists are now homing in on what ingredients in chocolate might help prevent obesity, ...

New promise in sea lice-eating lumpfish

Ballan wrasse and goldsinny wrasse are currently the principal biological weapons to fight sea lice at fish farms in Trøndelag county and further south. As these two species are sensitive to cold temperatures, they would ...

Nepal 'Himalayan Viagra' harvest droops to record low

Every summer, Himalayan villages empty as locals rush to the mountains of northern Nepal to harvest yarchagumba, a high-altitude wild fungus that is prized for its aphrodisiac qualities.

Clash of the crayfish: Why the Americans are winning

Aggressive American signal crayfish are threatening Britain's native white-clawed crayfish populations because they have better resistance to parasites and are less fussy about what they eat.

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Appetite

The appetite is the desire to eat food, felt as hunger. Appetite exists in all higher life-forms, and serves to regulate adequate energy intake to maintain metabolic needs. It is regulated by a close interplay between the digestive tract, adipose tissue and the brain. Decreased desire to eat is termed anorexia, while polyphagia (or "hyperphagia") is increased eating. Dysregulation of appetite contributes to anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, cachexia, overeating, and binge eating disorder.

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