Neurobiology of Eating Behavior, Nutrition and Health

Authors: STOVER, PATRICK - Texas Agrilife; BAILEY, REAGAN - Texas Agrilife; FIELD, MARTHA - Cornell University; ANGELIN, BO - Karolinska Institute; ANDERMANN, MARK - Harvard Medical School; BATTERHAM, RACHEL - University College London; CAUFFMAN, ELIZABETH - University Of California Irvine; FRUBECK, GEMA - University Of Navarra; IVERSEN, PER - University Of Oslo; Starke-Reed, Pamela; STERNSON, SCOTT - University Of California, San Diego; VINOY, SOPHIE - Mondelez International; WITTE, VERONICA - Max Planck Society; ZUKER, CHARLES - Columbia University - New York

Submitted to: Journal of Internal Medicine
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/7/2023
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Eating behavior and food-related decision making are among the most complex of the motivated behaviors. Food seeking, food cue-reactivity, food consumption, and satiation are regulated by neuronal circuits that integrate homeostatic and hedonic signals in the brain; these signals are influenced by numerous body organs, the microbiome, and external factors including the food environment and sociocultural setting. Individual capacity to make health-promoting food decisions varies based on biological and physiological variation in the signaling pathways that regulate the homeostatic, hedonic, and executive functions, past developmental exposures and current life-stage, and complications of chronic disease that reinforce the obese state. Understanding human eating behaviors and nutrition in the context of neuroscience can strengthen the evidence-base from which dietary guidelines are derived and inform policies, practices, and educational programs in a way that increases the likelihood they are adopted and effective for reducing rates of obesity and other diet-related chronic disease. This review summarizes a 3-day symposium of the Marabou Foundation (www.marabousymposium.org) held to examine the intersection of the neurobiology of eating behavior and human nutrition in health and disease.

Technical Abstract: Eating behavior and food-related decision making are among the most complex of the motivated behaviors. Food seeking, food cue-reactivity, food consumption, and satiation are regulated by neuronal circuits that integrate homeostatic and hedonic signals in the brain; these signals are influenced by numerous body organs, the microbiome, and external factors including the food environment and sociocultural setting. Individual capacity to make health-promoting food decisions varies based on biological and physiological variation in the signaling pathways that regulate the homeostatic, hedonic, and executive functions, past developmental exposures and current life-stage, and complications of chronic disease that reinforce the obese state. Understanding human eating behaviors and nutrition in the context of neuroscience can strengthen the evidence-base from which dietary guidelines are derived and inform policies, practices, and educational programs in a way that increases the likelihood they are adopted and effective for reducing rates of obesity and other diet-related chronic disease. This review summarizes a 3-day symposium of the Marabou Foundation (www.marabousymposium.org) held to examine the intersection of the neurobiology of eating behavior and human nutrition in health and disease.