New PNAS paper on why some people (don’t) struggle with dietary self-control

Posted on by Anita Tusche

Over 18% of adults globally are expected to be obese by 2025, indicating widespread challenges in adopting healthy diets. Using a gradient approach, we studied how brain states change when making natural and regulated dietary choices. We found that individuals with lower weight status could modify their eating behaviors while maintaining similar large-scale brain activity. However, individuals with higher weight status struggled to rely on this mechanism, needing more adjustments to respond to dietary control challenges. The differences in brain activity patterns may explain why some people struggle with dietary control while others do not. Read the full paper here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2314224121