Summary: A new study reveals that consuming high-calorie, highly processed foods for just five days can reduce the brain’s sensitivity to insulin, a key factor in obesity and type 2 diabetes. Researchers have found that even healthy people, short-term unhealthy feeding alters brain function and mimics the effects seen in obese people.
Singing the MRI scan, they observed that the decline in insulin sensitivity persisted even after a week after returning to normal diet. These findings suggest that the brain can rapidly adapt to dietary changes and contribute to long-term weight gain and metabolic diseases.
Important facts
Rapid brain changes: brain insulin sensitivity decreased for just 5 days of a high-calorie diet. Low Effects: Brain insulin resistance persisted even after normal diet resumed.
Source: DZD
The number of obese people has increased significantly over the last few decades, poses great challenges for those affected, health care systems, and those who provide treatment.
The hormone insulin plays an important role in the development of obesity. Until recently, there have been many signs that insulin causes neurodegeneration and metabolic disorders. Especially on the brain.
Recent research by the University Hospital of Tubingen, the Centre for Diabetes Research in Germany (DZD), and Helmholtzmunich provides interesting new insights into the origins of type 2 diabetes and obesity and the function of the brain as an important control center.
Obesity has been officially recognized as a German disease since 2020, despite its long known fact that it causes many diseases, including diabetes, heart attacks and even cancer.
The World Health Organization has already declared obesity an epidemic, affecting more than 1 billion people worldwide and almost 16 million people in Germany alone.
A body mass index above 30 is considered obese, and insufficient diet and lack of exercise are frequently cited as the cause of this chronic disease. However, the mechanisms within the body that lead to obesity and cause illness are more complicated.
The role of insulin in obesity and the brain
Unhealthy body fat distribution and chronic weight gain are associated with brain sensitivity to insulin. What specific functions does insulin perform in the brain and how does it affect individuals of normal weight?
In their study, colleagues in diabetes, endocrinology and nephrology at Tübingen University Hospital and her colleagues found the answer to this question.
“Our findings show for the first time that short-term consumption of highly processed, unhealthy foods (such as chocolate bars and potato chips) can cause significant changes in the brain of healthy individuals. This could be the first cause of obesity and type 2 diabetes.”
In healthy conditions, insulin has an appetite-inducing effect on the brain. However, especially in obese people, insulin does not properly regulate feeding behavior, leading to insulin resistance.
“Interestingly, in healthy study participants, the brain shows a similar reduction in sensitivity to insulin after short-term high-calorie intake, like obese people,” Kulman says.
“This effect can even be observed a week after returning to a balanced diet,” she adds.
She is also the assistant director of the DZD Partner Diabetes Research and Metabolic Neuroimaging Division of Metabolic Diseases (IDM) at Helmholtz Munich, University of Tübingen.
Focus on the brain
Dr. Andreas Birkenfeld, medical director of Internal Medicine IV, IDM and DZD board members, and the final author of the study, “We assume that brain insulin responses adapt to short-term dietary changes before weight gain occurs, thus promoting the development of obesity and other secondary diseases.”
He is urging more research into how the brain contributes to the development of obesity and other metabolic diseases in light of current discoveries.
A short period of wide-ranging effects
Twenty-nine male volunteers with an average weight were involved in the study and were divided into two groups.
For five consecutive days, the first group had to supplement 1500 kcal from highly processed, high-calorie snacks with a regular diet. No additional calories were consumed by the control group.
Both groups took two separate exams following their initial assessment. One test was performed five days later, and another was performed seven days after the first group resumed their regular diet.
Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine liver fat content and brain insulin sensitivity.
Not only did the liver fat content increase significantly after 5 days of calorie intake. Surprisingly, the significantly lower brain insulin sensitivity compared to the control group also lasted for a week after returning to normal diet.
This effect was previously only observed in obese people.
About this diet and obesity research news
Author: Katrin Weber
Source: DZD
Contact: Katrin Weber – DZD
Image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Open access.
“A short-term, high-calorie diet had a long-term effect on insulin effects in men’s brains,” Stephanie Kullmann et al. Natural metabolism
Abstract
A short-term, high-calorie diet has a long-term effect on insulin effects in men’s brains
Brain insulin reactivity is associated with long-term weight gain and unhealthy body fat distribution.
Here we show that short-term overeating with calorie-rich sweet, fatty foods causes accumulation of liver fat, disrupting brain insulin effects that exceed the time frame of consumption in healthy-weight men.
Therefore, brain responses to insulin may be adapted to short-term changes in diet before weight gain, and may promote the development of obesity and associated diseases.
