High saturated fat diets physically alter the way we think about food. They wreck the brain’s pleasure center, requiring ever more saturated fat to elicit the same level of enjoyment. Assistant professor Steven Fordahl is determining how and why that wreckage occurs.
Dr. Fordahl explores the flow of neurotransmitters in the brain to identify the causes of — and potentially treatments for — obesity. Obesity is one of the fastest growing public health concerns in America. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it affects over one-third of our population.
To better understand obesity’s dominance over the brain, Fordahl measures real-time neurotransmission in response to food intake. The technique is typically used to map neural circuitry, but Fordahl, who joined UNC Greensboro’s Department of Nutrition last year, uses it to illustrate the profound effect that dietary choices have on normal brain function.