Abstract
Energy imbalance is a fundamental cause of obesity and diseases related to life-style. Control of food intake is an important solution, but appears as difficult to achieve as development of a successful anti-obesity medicine. Despite recent progress in molecular understanding of regulation of food intake, the impact during evolution of thrifty genes always makes homeostatic energy control difficult, and a new approach to control of our hedonic attitudes to food is required. Fatty acids are indispensable nutritional elements, biomembrane components, and physiological active substances, and because of molecular diversity their exact contributions to pathophysiology remain enigmatic. Recent progress in our understanding of molecular mechanisms of fatty acid interactions in cells may provide keys to obesity-related pathology and inflammation. Hormonal and neuronal networks linking the intestines to the brain are clearly deeply involved in energy metabolism. Since classic medical approaches to homeostatic energy control has not worked very well so far, we propose to make the most of these network systems by development of novel areas within food science.
