'Dessert stomach' lives in your brain, say scientists

Scientists recently determined why people always seem to have room for something sweet after eating a meal.

It's because the "dessert stomach" is a real thing in a person's brain.

"We wanted to find out why, even in a state of satiety, we consume high-sugar-containing foods," Henning Fenselau, research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne, Germany, told Fox News Digital.

To tackle the issue, Fenselau said he and his colleagues looked into the mechanisms of the brain that tell a person when he or she feels full.

"We found that the neurons – the nerve cells – that are mediating satiety are the same cells that are also producing a signal that selectively drives the appetite for sweets," he said. 

This discovery, Fenselau said, was "very surprising." 

Fenselau and his team carried out experiments with mice and realized that "completely satiated mice still ate desserts," according to a release from the Max Planck Institute.

"Investigations of the brain showed that a group of nerve cells, the so-called POMC neurons, are responsible for this," the release said.

"These neurons became active as soon as the mice were given access to sugar, which facilitated their appetite."

A similar discovery was found in human volunteers, whose brains were scanned after receiving a sugar solution. 

"They found that the same region of the brain reacted to the sugar in humans," according to the release. 

"In this region, as in mice, there are many opiate receptors close to satiety neurons."

Looking ahead, Fenselau said he thinks there's "a lot of room to investigate" this discovery further. 

It may have implications for obesity research and treatments, he said.

It is possible that this part of the brain may play a role in the development of obesity.

"Because sugar is present everywhere, is it that this mechanism is engaged all the time?" he wondered. 

Drugs such as GLP-1s, Fenselau said, "definitely work in the same part of the brain" that his team identified as the "dessert brain." 

There is still, however, a lot to be discovered. 

Regarding GLP-1, he said, "We don't know if [it] interferes with this mechanism that we identified."

He added, "It's something we are very interested in, also, to figure out how these drugs, which are quite effective, have an impact on this mechanism that we identified." 

Alternatively, with the new discovery, the drugs could be improved with "additional compounds" that target the part of the brain that craves sugar and reduces the appetite for sugar, he said. 

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