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Brain's Weight Switch Found: May Let Us Eat What We Want, Finally (neurosciencenews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by will_a113@lemmy.ml to c/science@beehaw.org

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A new discovery reveals that astrocytes, star-shaped cells in the brain, play a key role in regulating fat metabolism and obesity. These cells act on a cluster of neurons, known as the GABRA5 cluster, effectively acting as a “switch” for weight regulation.

The MAO-B enzyme in these astrocytes was identified as a target for obesity treatment, influencing GABA secretion and thus weight regulation.

KDS2010, a selective and reversible MAO-B inhibitor, successfully led to weight loss in obese mice without impacting their food intake, even while consuming a high-fat diet, and is now in Phase 1 clinical trials.

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[–] storksforlegs@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Oh I agree! I wish we could move past the profit motive as well, especially when it comes to food and shelter. Criminal that there are no non-profit options in these areas in most western nations.)

I was just arguing there have been campaigns to raise the price of sugary or convenience foods to get people to eat healthy. But these campaigns just end up hurting low income people who can't afford the healthier options in the first place. I was suggesting an approach that might make healthy food more accessible - (but that's within a shitty capitalist system.

[–] BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

True that! A lot of legislation passed (if you're in a country that actually believes in passing legislation) is often incomplete. Even within a capitalist system there can be some degree of a solution achieved. Austerity has thrown a wrench in that but we've seen that with enough pressure the state can occasionally help.

Perhaps (I'm in the US so my ideas may not apply elsewhere) instead of additional subsidies to agriculture we could reallocate the ones were already giving out to more nutritious crops. Corn gets far too much money for example, that's why it's in literally everything here. It's so cheap it's more cost effective to process the hell out of it and turn it into something else entirely over just growing something else. Likewise, dairy gets a ton of money and we waste so much of it.

That money could be given to a broader variety of crops, alongside some sort of legislation to make the disposal of perfectly good food either outright illegal or with heavy fines involved to the point that it's more profitable/less costly to just sell the food. Hell, tax breaks for giving it away too. Because if there's one thing that will get rich dicks on board it's tax breaks. Maybe throw some additional incentive to move away from pesticides and monoculture as well