Oxytocin – aka the love drug – could be used to help suppress our desire for the high-carb foods we typically overeat, according to new research from the University of Waikato.
Photo: Ketut Subiyanto / Pexels
Molecular biologist Pawel Olszewski Photo: University of Waikato,
Oxytocin is an "old molecule" known to support our survival as individuals and as a species in a variety of ways, including enabling us to fall in love and facilitating childbirth, Pawel Olszewski tells Karyn Hay.
Now we're discovering oxytocin can also very effectively suppress our appetite for the sugary and high-carbohydrate foods we tend to eat too much of.
When it comes down to it, most of the time most of us eat for pleasure rather than hunger, Olszewski says.
"We do not really know hunger very often. We do experience, as a society, foods that are very low-quality so we are under-nourished very often… but in terms of calories themselves, hunger is not the main issue … Right now the drive to eat is based mainly on eating for pleasure, eating foods that are sweet, eating foods that are fatty, or a combination of both, and snacking. Our eating activity is ongoing throughout the day. We eat many meals, we eat between the meals."
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So far, the administration of oxytocin to humans has been effective in suppressing appetite, but it seems oxytocin may need back-up to further discourage eating that's "driven purely by the need to feel reward", Olszewski says.
His team are now researching whether oxytocin can be "helped" to suppress appetite by other molecules that do the same job, such as opioid receptor blockers.
12 Ways to Boost Oxytocin Naturally
- Yoga
- Music
- Massage
- Tell someone how much you care
- Spend time with friends
- Meditate
- Make your conversations count
- Cook with someone you care about
- Have sex
- Cuddle
- Do something nice for someone
- Pat dogs
