Craving fatty foods is simply what obese people's brains are trained for!

New Delhi: Obesity is just the starting point for many long-term health issues. Excessive weight gain can render many organs of your body useless in the long run, thereby increasing your risk of fatality as well.

Unhealthy eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle are the biggest contributors towards obesity.

There's no harm in being a foodie, but compromise in the form of diets and exercise is also important.

Diet control at this juncture becomes necessary too, but someone who is used to a certain diet pattern may find it difficult to make a sudden change, especially overweight people who have been following the wrong path for a long time.

For people suffering from obesity, the craving for delicious, albeit unhealthy fatty foods is real.

Establishing this small facet of obesity, Australian scientists have found that the brains of obese people could be "wired" to seek out fatty foods.

Researchers from the Bio-Medicine Discovery Institute at Melbourne's Monash University are investigating the messaging system between the brain and the body with hopes of discovering the neurological cause of obesity, Xinhua news agency reported.

"There is no question the brain is the key site regulating appetite and obesity," associate professor Zane Andrews from Monash told Thursday.

"There are a number of genetic mutations that increase the risk of obesity and the majority are located somewhere in the brain."

Andrews said his focus was on brain cells responsible for sensing hunger that also influenced motivation and reward.

He said that early results indicated that the brains of obese people were not sending messages to tell the body that they already have enough energy stored.

Andrews' team has identified that part of the problem could form while the brain pathways are forming during childhood, with children who are rewarded for good behaviour with sweet treats, forming an association between sugar and feeling good.

The team has been able to delete an enzyme in mice that plays an important role in stopping the brain from sending messages that the body is still hungry.

"What we think is the problem in obesity is that those cells are not receiving or sensing the signals to say the person is full so they keep firing, causing people to continue eating," Andrews added.

(With IANS inputs)