Fruit Fly's Response To Starvation Could Help Control Human Appetites

More wisdom from the weight loss menagerie.

Biologists at UC San Diego have identified the molecular mechanisms triggered by starvation in fruit flies that enhance the nervous system's response to smell, allowing these insects and presumably vertebrates - including humans - to become more efficient and voracious foragers when hungry.

Their discovery of the neural changes that control odor-driven food searches in flies, which they detail in a paper in the April 1 issue of the journal Cell, could provide a new way to potentially regulate human appetite.

It won't.

More heavy hitters in the expanding fatso menagerie:



Rodents:



The Fruit fly:



Birds:



Worms:



Marmots:

Lemurs:

But, why bother? The only animal you need is: