[Regulation of eating behavior]

Precise regulation of food intake, both quantitatively and qualitatively, is required to provide for balanced energy supply and stable body weight in mammals as well as humans. These effects are of tantamount importance as any major deviation in body weight results either in impaired function due to reduced energy supply (underweight) or in system damage (overweight; metabolic syndrome). Regulation of food intake therefore is subject to a multitude of sensoric, neural and humoral control mechanisms informing on the actual state of energy supply as well as prevailing energy demand. The large number of control systems, however, provides also an opportunity for the development of multiple defects as potential causes of eating disorders. Their appropriate treatment will become accessible only with even more detailed knowledge than presently available, which is to provide the basis for correct diagnosis of eating disorders.