{"id":207788,"date":"2025-03-04T12:06:33","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T18:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/brains-opiate-pathway-explains-why-we-crave-sweets-even-when-full"},"modified":"2025-03-04T12:06:33","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T18:06:33","slug":"brains-opiate-pathway-explains-why-we-crave-sweets-even-when-full","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/brains-opiate-pathway-explains-why-we-crave-sweets-even-when-full","title":{"rendered":"Brain\u2019s opiate pathway explains why we crave sweets even when full"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/brains-opiate-pathway-explains-why-we-crave-sweets-even-when-full.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Who hasn\u2019t been there? The big meal is over, you\u2019re full, but the craving for sweets remains. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research have now discovered that what we call the \u201cdessert stomach\u201d is rooted in the brain. The same nerve cells that make us feel full after a meal are also responsible for our craving for sweets afterwards.<\/p>\n<p>To find the cause of the \u201cdessert stomach,\u201d the researchers investigated the reaction of mice to sugar and found that completely satiated mice still ate desserts. The paper is published in the journal Science.<\/p>\n<p>Investigations of the brain showed that a group of nerve cells, the so-called POMC neurons, are responsible for this. These neurons became active as soon as the mice were given access to sugar, which facilitated their appetite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who hasn\u2019t been there? The big meal is over, you\u2019re full, but the craving for sweets remains. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research have now discovered that what we call the \u201cdessert stomach\u201d is rooted in the brain. The same nerve cells that make us feel full after a meal are also [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":707,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/707"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}