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Regulation of Food Intake in Obese People: Little Evidence for an Antiobesity Drug

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Regulation of Food Intake in Obese People

WHAT IS OBESITY?

The most common eating disorder in our society is excessive eating which includes craving and compulsive eating which can quite often result in obesity (http://www.nutramed.com/zeno/addictive.htm#exorphins). Obesity is a body condition where a person's body mass index is greater than 30. Other diseases that can accompany or follow obesity include diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. Also, obese people are at a greater risk of certain kinds of cancer like breast, colon, and uterine cancer. Nori Geary, an associate professor of psychiatry at Cornell University, did a great deal of work on the physiological control of feeding behavior …show more content…

The receptors in the gastrointestinal tract manage the size and times of eating behavior while metabolic cues oversee energy consumption with respect to what the body needs. Overeating causes a greater amount of fat storage than did carbohydrate overfeeding. Studies of the appetites of obese women prove that energy intake during a high-fat lunch was much higher than during a high-carbohydrate lunch and this remained for the next 24 hours. The reason that has been hypothesized for this is that the metabolic rates of fats and carbos are different. Carbohydrates are more rapidly absorbed and contribute to the suppression of appetite. Fat storage, on the other hand, is almost without limit with a lower satiety calibre. Carbohydrate storage in the body, in the form of glycogen, is limited, and need to be constantly refilled. Obesity is a disorder that is related to a "disease" of the fat storage mechanisms and if a person is obese, there will be a presence of lipids already in the small intestine that delay the emptying of gastric fluids. These fatty acids in the stomach relax the stomach and therefore, cause the stomach to be able to adapt to a greater capacity of food. When the stomach receptors are stimulated, the gastric sensitivity is transformed to accommodate a meal while the positive sensations of enjoyment are also aroused so that this experience is repeated again. Studies have shown that people show feelings of sleepiness and

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