Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 2, 2026
05:57
Fat Preference: A Novel Model of Eating Behavior in Rats
Published on: June 27, 2014
Food Addiction Risk Accelerates Fat Accumulation in Youth: Potential Protective Roles of Left Insula and Mindful
Dan Wang1, Ke Huang1, Xuelian Zhou1
1Department of Endocrinology, Children's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Children and Adolescents' Health and Diseases, Hangzhou, China.
Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.)
|June 1, 2026
Summary
Food addiction (FA) in youth is linked to eating motives and fat accumulation. Mindful eating may offer protection, with brain structure in the left insula potentially playing a role.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Public Health
Background:
- Food addiction (FA) is associated with obesity in adolescents.
- The moderating effect of mindful eating on FA and its neural underpinnings in youth are not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of mindful eating in moderating the relationship between food addiction and weight status in youth.
- To explore the neural mechanisms, including brain structure, associated with food addiction and mindful eating in adolescents.
Main Methods:
- Integrated multicenter cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys with an independent MRI sample.
- Assessed food addiction, eating motives, mindful eating, BMI z-score, fat content, and visceral fat level.
- Employed structural equation modeling, latent growth modeling, and voxel-based morphometry.
Main Results:
- Food addiction mediated the link between eating motives and weight status, with mindful eating acting as a moderator.
- Baseline food addiction predicted increased fat and visceral fat accumulation over 12 months.
- Left insula gray-matter volume was negatively associated with food addiction and positively with mindful eating.
Conclusions:
- Food addiction may drive fat accumulation in youth, especially abdominal fat, and mindful eating could be protective.
- Brain structure, specifically left insula gray-matter volume and its connectivity with the striatum, may be neural correlates of food addiction and mindful eating in adolescents.
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