Free Republic

A team of researchers has identified specific bacteria in the gut that are associated with both mice and humans developing an addiction to food that can lead to obesity. They have also identified bacteria that play a beneficial role in preventing food addiction. Prof. Martín-García used the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS 2.0) to diagnose food addiction. She and her colleagues investigated the gut bacteria in mice who were and were not addicted to food and found an increase in bacteria belonging to a group called the Proteobacteria phylum and a decrease in bacteria belonging to the Actinobacteria phylum in...

Scientists from the University Of Kansas have recently published research in the journal Obesity that attempts to define those foods under the term “hyper-palatability.” While hyper-palatability has been used for years in relation to foods, this paper is the first to provide a concrete definition. The researchers found that combinations of certain types of ingredients create hyper-palatability: combinations of fat and sodium (hot dogs, bacon); combinations of fat and simple sugars (cake, ice cream, brownies); and combinations of carbohydrates and sodium (pretzels, popcorn). Researchers assigned quantitative values to those ingredients, then analyzed 7,757 food items in the U.S. Department of...