Our weight tells how we assess food

Date: September 22, 2017

Source: International School for Advanced Studies

"It can be considered an instance of 'embodiment' in which our brain interacts with our body." This is the comment made by Raffaella Rumiati, neuroscientist at the International School for Advanced Studies -- SISSA in Trieste, on the results of research carried out by her group which reveals that the way we process different foods changes in accordance with our body mass index. With two behavioural and electroencephalographic experiments, the study demonstrated that people of normal weight tend to associate natural foods such as apples with their sensory characteristics such as sweetness or softness.

On the other hand, processed foods such as pizzas are generally associated with their function or the context in which they are eaten such as parties or picnics.

"The results are in line with the theory according to which sensory characteristics and the functions of items are processed differently by the brain," comments Giulio Pergola, the work's primary author. "They represent an important step forward in our understanding of the mechanisms at the basis of the assessments we make of food." But that's not all.

Recently published in the Biological Psychology journal, the research also highlighted the ways in which underweight people pay greater attention to natural foods and overweight people to processed foods. Even when subjected to the same stimuli, these two groups show different electroencephalography signals. These results show once again the importance of cognitive neuroscience also in the understanding of extremely topical clinical fields such as dietary disorders.

Genetics, lifestyle have a strong impact on biomarkers for inflammation, cancer

Date: August 22, 2014

Source: Uppsala Universitet

Biomarkers used for diagnosing disease should preferably indicate variations in protein levels only for those individuals who are suffering from a particular disease. Nor should they vary for reasons which have nothing to do with the disease. By analysing 92 protein biomarkers for cancer and inflammation in a clinical study of 1,000 healthy individuals, researchers at Uppsala University have for the first time surveyed the significance of genetic, clinical and lifestyle factors for protein levels in the bloodstream. The results of the study show that hereditary factors play a significant role for more than 75 per cent of the proteins, and a detailed genetic analysis demonstrates 16 genes with a strong effect on protein levels.

"These results are important, as they show which variables are significant for variations in the measurable values. If these factors are known, we have a greater possibility of seeing variations and we get clearer breakpoints between elevated values and normal values. By extension this may lead to the possibility of using more biomarkers clinically," explains Stefan Enroth, researcher at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University.

According to the study, genetics and lifestyle together account in some cases for more than 50 per cent of variations in protein levels among healthy individuals. This means that information about both genetic and lifestyle factors must be taken into account in order for protein biomarkers to be used effectively.