Appetite hormone also controls eating pleasure -- study

In a study released Thursday said that leptin, an appetite-suppressing hormone, may do more than just reduce one's hunger: it might also regulate one's fondness for food and thus figure high in overeating and obesity.

British researchers found that providing them with additional levels of the hormone appeared to diminish the amount of pleasure they associated with food, as well cutting their sense of hunger and increasing feelings of fullness.

The finding suggests that our enjoyment of food is partly biologically-driven and may ultimately explain why some people have to work harder to control their weight than others, the authors of the paper said.

According to a researcher in the department of clinical biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, more studies are needed to find out how these brain responses vary in people with weight problems in general.

source: Agence France-Presse