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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Avocados, nuts and olive oil make more than just great additions to a meal. Eating dishes containing these fatty foods may ward off overeating by signaling your brain to stop eating when youre full.
Pharmacologists at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) found high-fat foods stimulate production of an appetite-suppressing compound in the small intestine. Oleic acid, an unsaturated fatty acid found in certain foods, stimulates oleoylethanolamide (OEA) production. OEA then reaches nerve endings that tell the brain the body doesnt need any more food.
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Researchers hope the new finding will lead to a treatment option for the 30 percent of Americans who are obese. We are excited to find that OEA activates cell receptors that already have been the focus of successful drug development, Daniele Piomelli, Ph.D., the Louise Turner Arnold Chair in Neurosciences at UCI, was quoted as saying. This gives us hope for a new class of anti-obesity drugs based on the savvy use of natural appetite-controlling mechanisms.
In previous studies, Dr. Piomelli also found that increasing OEA levels aids in weight loss and lower blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
SOURCE: Cell Metabolism, 2008;doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071
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