The mere utterance or smell of favorite dishes starts salivation. This is the normal after response from brain. After taking food one gets satisfaction and there is satiety. But, now researchers say that after gaining weight there is gradual loss of pleasure from eating the same food. Whereas, those who do not gain weight used to get same pleasure feeling from the food. The overweight people try eating more to get the same level of pleasure and go from overweight to obese.
The researchers found less activity in the region of brain which is responsible for feeling of pleasure in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) . Obese people are known to have fewer pleasure receptors in the brain than thin people to start, according to the new study, whose findings suggest that overeating blunts the reward pathway further. New Scientist reports.
This tolerance or acclimatization let the overweight to chase after more food to get pleasure and in the long run accumulate more fat in body. This is something akin to a drug addict whose body getting accustomed to the drug wants higher doses to get same level of pleasure.
More research may be needed to find out whether losing weight will reverse the tolerance.
