Gastric bypass surgery does more than shrink your stomach. It alters your brain’s response to food in ways that may help you keep off the pounds. Researchers fed Häagen-Dazs ice cream to 42 people ages 23 to 45, then scanned their brains. Among their findings: The hypothalamus and the pituitary worked harder to control the urge to overeat in people who’d undergone the weight-loss surgery than they did in obese people. The research also suggests that eating becomes less pleasurable after surgery, while gut hormones appear to tell the brain that, post-bypass, smaller portions satisfy hunger. That’s a brain primed to avoid weight gain.
Source: Diabetes Care, October 2016