You are what you eat

"Washington: The popular adage "you are what you eat" is literally true, according to a new research that claims a person's diet has a profound influence on his or her brain.

The findings offer insight into the neurobiological factors behind the obesity epidemic in the world.

In addition, the study exposed changes in brain chemistry due to diet and weight gain.

Obesity has been linked to rises in diabetes, stroke, and heart attacks, among other disorders, but the new research has added another dimension to understanding how obesity rates have more than doubled in the past 30 years.

The new findings show that disruptions in the sleep/wake cycle lead to weight gain, impulsivity, slower thinking, and other physiological and behavioural changes.

This could be particularly important for people who do shift work.

The study also showed that pregnant mice fed a high-fat diet produced pups that were longer, weighed more, and had reduced insulin sensitivity - factors that indicate a predisposition toward obesity and diabetes. In addition, despite no further exposure to a high-fat diet, these pups passed on those same traits to their offspring.

Feeding high-fat food to pregnant mice can affect the brain development of their offspring, causing the pups to be more vulnerable to obesity and to engaging in addictive-like behaviours in adulthood, found the researchers."