Recent research revealed presence of a fatty substance, in the gut that signals the brain when it's time to stop eating. Research team led by Gerald Shulman of Yale University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute believe that this discovery can help in fighting obesity.

U. S. researchers found that a naturally occurring fat-derived chemical messenger called NAPE regulated the diet of animals. Researchers said that when the rodents were fed a fatty meal, their small intestine made a lot of NAPE and put it into the bloodstream. It then traveled to the brain and shut down hunger signals.

During study, researchers synthesized NAPE and injected it into the abdomen of the animals, whose appetites diminished greatly. Study revealed that NAPE delivered in much smaller amounts directly to the brain had the same effect on appetite as a larger dose injected into the bloodstream.

Researchers said that NAPE concentrated in the hypothalamus, an important brain structure known to regulate hunger, and inhibited neurons that stimulate appetite. When the rodents were given extra NAPE for five days, they animals ate less and lost weight. Shulman said, "We're now doing the fat-feeding studies in humans to see if we get a similar increase in plasma (blood) NAPE concentrations following a fatty meal."