Comfort-food Cravings May Be Body's Attempt To Put Brake On
Chronic Stress UCSF researchers have identified a biochemical
feedback system in rats that could explain why some people crave
comfort foods - such as chocolate chip cookies and greasy
cheeseburgers - when they are chronically stressed, and why such
people are apt to gain weight in the abdomen. The finding, to be
published this week on-line in the Early Edition of Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences, focuses on a glucocorticoid
steroid hormone (corticosterone in rats, cortisol in humans)
that plays a key role in the stress-response system. In their
study, the researchers determined that 24 hours after activation
of the chronic stress system - which stimulates a flood of
hormonal signaling from the hypothalamus to the adrenal glands
-- glucocorticoids prompt rats to engage in pleasure-seeking
behaviors, which include eating high-energy foods (sucrose and
lard). The animals develop abdominal obesity, and the negative
aspects of the chronic