The Tongue Is The Start Of The Route To Obesity

No, it's the hand.

"Obesity gradually numbs the taste sensation of rats to sweet foods and drives them to consume larger and ever-sweeter meals, according to neuroscientists. Findings from the Penn State study could uncover a critical link between taste and body weight, and reveal how flab hooks the brain on sugary food.

'When you have a reduced sensitivity to palatable foods, you tend to consume it in higher amounts,' said Andras Hajnal, associate professor of neural and behavioral sciences at Penn State College of Medicine. 'It is a vicious circle.'

Previous studies have suggested that obese persons are less sensitive to sweet taste and crave sweet foods more than lean people. However, little is known about the specific differences between obese and lean individuals in their sense of taste and the pleasure they derive from sweet foods."

The tongue would be out of the loop if the hand did not lift the food to the mouth.

"Compared to the lean and healthy LETO rats, the taste responses in OLETF rats mirror those in obese humans. These rats have normal body weight at first, but they tend to chronically overeat due to a missing satiety signal, become obese and develop diabetes."

But there is one truth from this study. And it is not the plain speculation that rats "tend to chronically overeat due to a missing satiety signal."

Obese people are no smarter than lab rats.

My apologies to the rats.