• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Diabetes Everyday

Living your best life with diabetes. Toby Smithson provides professional guidance with personal experience.

  • Diabetes EveryDay
  • Work With Toby
    • Toby in the Media
      • Interviews and Articles
    • Toby’s Books
    • Speaking Out About Diabetes
  • Sharing Toby’s Knowledge
    • Understanding Diabetes
    • Eating Healthy
    • Being Physically Active
    • Medications and Monitoring Health
    • Reducing Stress
    • Staying Motivated
    • Diabetes Resources
  • Meet Toby
    • Contact Toby
  • YouTube Channel
  • Newsletter
You are here: Home / Eating Healthy / Impulsive Eating? Blame Your Brain

Impulsive Eating? Blame Your Brain

September 27, 2013 By Toby Smithson

Researchers at the University of North Carolina reported, in a study published in the journal Science, that stimulating certain cells connecting the amygdala and the hypothalamus of mice could stimulate impulsive overeating- “voracious feeding behavior”-  even when the mice were well fed. These particular areas of the brain are a part of what’s called the “limbic system”, responsible for insuring that survival instincts get top priority.

As early as the 1960s neuroscientists electrically stimulated the lateral hypothalamus and saw that it played a key role in feeding behavior, and in the reinforcement of feeding behavior. This current research focused on the hypothalamus as well, one of the brain’s most primitive structures, and a crucial part of brain circuitry that drives us to eat and drink, to seek out sexual partners, and generally to crave more of what makes us feel good. The lateral hypothalamus is connected to the amygdala, where basic, powerful emotions like fear, anger and love are processed.

This connection between eating behavior and powerful emotion is consistent with other research suggesting that stress and overwhelming exposure to food triggers overeating. Moreover, the study results may identify a target for intervention in the epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes associated with overeating.

Filed Under: Eating Healthy, Featured, Reducing Stress

Toby Smithson Diabetes Everyday

Subscribe on YouTube

Toby Smithson dynamically combines her knowledge as a certified diabetes educator and registered dietitian nutritionist with her life experiences successfully managing type 1 diabetes for more than five decades.

Primary Sidebar

Search

Keys to Living Well – Toby’s Posts

Recent Posts

  • How To Make a Successful New Year’s Resolution for Diabetes January 8, 2021
  • Can Drinking Water Help My Blood Sugar? January 8, 2021
  • Are Smoothies Good For My Diabetes? January 8, 2021
  • Is Insulin Right For Your Diabetes? January 8, 2021
  • Sneaky Exercise For Your Diabetes Health December 17, 2020

Post Archives

Before Footer

tobysmithson

341

tobysmithson

View

Jan 15

Open
Instagram post 17953079149400868

...

tobysmithson

View

Jan 14

Open
Instagram post 18004353328307100

...

tobysmithson

View

Jan 7

Open
Instagram post 18067712551251785

...

tobysmithson

View

Jan 6

Open
Instagram post 17880818393029517

...

tobysmithson

View

Jan 6

Open
Instagram post 17855641313454113

...

tobysmithson

View

Jan 6

Open
Instagram post 17910246493603304

...

tobysmithson

View

Jan 4

Open
Instagram post 17894073136753376

...

tobysmithson

View

Dec 30

Open
Instagram post 17903473336645471

...

tobysmithson

View

Dec 23

Open
Instagram post 17871875450143141

...

tobysmithson

View

Dec 22

Open
Instagram post 17871410492141380

...

tobysmithson

View

Dec 18

Open
Instagram post 17887285324874514

...

tobysmithson

View

Dec 14

Open
Instagram post 17900130643640914

...

tobysmithson

View

Dec 11

Open
Instagram post 17896765135683657

...

tobysmithson

View

Dec 11

Open
Instagram post 17872036478103210

...

tobysmithson

View

Dec 4

Open
Instagram post 17884389391885175

...

tobysmithson

View

Nov 27

Open
Instagram post 17860636136292380

...

tobysmithson

View

Nov 26

Open
Instagram post 17898060967641384

...

tobysmithson

View

Nov 21

Open
Instagram post 17849063750432952

...

tobysmithson

View

Nov 19

Open
Instagram post 17862746327213051

...

tobysmithson

View

Nov 18

Open
Instagram post 18175894849033707

...

Load More Follow on Instagram

Footer

Recent Posts

  • How To Make a Successful New Year’s Resolution for Diabetes
  • Can Drinking Water Help My Blood Sugar?
  • Are Smoothies Good For My Diabetes?
  • Is Insulin Right For Your Diabetes?

Let’s Connect!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Keep in touch with diabetes news.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Advertising/ Disclosure
  • Contact Toby
  • Terms of Use

Copyright © 2021 Diabetes Everyday · Website by Market Me Social Inc.