I was excited to find a clue to oxytocin's influence on eating -- and overeating. I felt intuitively that there's a connection, because food and love seem so connected.
Linda Rinaman at the University of Pennsylvania presented "Oxytocin and Ingestibe Behavior" at that Neurohypophyseal Hormones Conference going on right now. Building on research that showed oxytocin reduces rats' desire to eat when they're dehydrated,
Rinaman said she and her colleagues are interested in determining "the special role that [oxytocin] may have to control food intake under certain situations, but not in others. We think that oxytocin might normally act in the brain to inhibit intake only in certain types of feeding or drinking situations. If we can pinpoint the types of situations, we'll learn more about how [oxytocin] and other peptides may function under unique environmental conditions."
And who knew there was a Society for Ingestive Behavior ?
