Minding those fatty food cravings

If you crave fatty food, don't blame it on lack of willpower. Blame it on your brain.

Neuroscientist Sarah Leibowitz of Rockefeller University in New York has found evidence that the brain protein galanin urges the body to consume fat-rich foods.

The more galanin residing in the hypothalamus, the more irresistible fatty foods become. An experimental drug called M40 can block the action of galanin and the appetite for fat that it creates.