Eating a High-Fat Diet May Rapidly Injure Brain Cells That Control Body Weight

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110608161533.htm

ScienceDaily (June 9, 2011) — Obesity among people who eat a high-fat diet may involve injury to neurons, or nerve cells, in a key part of the brain that controls body weight, according to the authors of a new animal study.

The results are being presented at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston.

"The possibility that brain injury may be a consequence of the overconsumption of a typical American diet offers a new explanation for why sustained weight loss is so difficult for most obese individuals to achieve," said presenting author Joshua Thaler, MD, PhD, a faculty member with the Diabetes and Obesity Center of Excellence at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Thaler and his colleagues studied the brains of rodents for the short-term and long-term effects of eating a high-fat diet.

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