“Remember the commercials saying, ‘This is your brain on drugs’?” Cary Savage, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, asked an audience at the KU Edwards Campus Regnier Auditorium on Wednesday night. “Well, this is your brain on food.”

Savage, a researcher at the Edwards campus, was one of four guest panelists at the KU Life Span Institute’s biannual community conversation, “Considering Obesity: Brain, Body, Behavior.” John Colombo, director of the Life Span Institute, said there were two goals for this year’s conversation.

“One is to raise consciousness about the issue of obesity,” Colombo said. “And the second goal is to make the community aware that there is research going on.”

Savage is one of these researchers. He uses magnetic resonance images, commonly called MRIs, to look at how a person’s brain reacts to various pictures, called cues, before and after they start a diet.

He uses photographs of “appetizing foods,” such as brownies, and “unappetizing foods,” such as live animals, to monitor brain activity in response to the photographs. Savage said cues could be pictures of any addictive substance, like drugs and alcohol, depending on the study.

“Most diets are proven successful, but only a minority of people are able to keep the weight off,” Savage said. Savage’s previous studies have shown 70 to 90 percent of dieters are successful in their programs, but 79 percent usually gain the weight back.

According to the Oct. 2008 edition of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, young adults in college are more likely to gain weight than the rest of the general population. It reported that the average weight gain among college students is four to nine pounds during freshman year. Ann Chapman, KU registered dietitian, said she wasn’t surprised.

“I’ve been here many years and I’m noticing an increase in obese students,” she said. Chapman said she consulted with patients throughout the week who were concerned about their weight. While most of her patients are self-referred, she said a number of them came in because of a doctor’s request.

Obesity is characterized by a body mass index of 30 and above. A BMI is the measurement of body fat based on height and weight. People with BMIs of 25 and above are considered overweight.

“You have an increase for disease with a high BMI,” Chapman said. “It’s a huge issue on campus.” To avoid weight gain and obesity, Chapman said developing healthy eating habits was crucial, especially during the first year of college.

Chapman said college students usually had a difficult time managing their weight for a number of reasons. She said boredom, depression, anger and stress were common emotions that triggered eating.

“Eating to soothe an emotion is an automatic response,” she said. Chapman recommends that people who eat based off of an emotion replace foods for different, healthier behaviors.

“If you’re a stress eater, that’s tough because you’ll have to come up with alternative behaviors to soothe stress,” she said. She recommends taking a bath, watching a clip from a funny movie or jumping rope for 30 minutes.

“It can’t just be exercise,” she said. “It has to be more specific.”

Savage said people use the limbic system, a set of brain structures that determine behaviors and emotions, to make health-related decisions every day. Healthy eating and regular exercise are not priorities for college students, and strong emotions put them at a high risk for rapid weight gain.

Marie Wilcox, St. Charles, Ill., freshman, said she thought a number of people were obese, but that there were a number of resources on campus for students to stay in shape.

Wilcox lives in Corbin residence hall. She said she exercised portion control when she ate in the GSP cafeteria and always walked to campus.

“I’ve seen girls on my floor gain the freshman 15,” she said. Wilcox said she didn’t think the frequent buses on campus were doing anyone any favors.

The discussion Wednesday evening also featured KU professors Joseph Donnelly, Debra Sullivan and Christie Befort, who gave advice to students about how to keep off the weight they have successfully lost. Donnelly directs the Center for Physical Activity, Nutrition and Weight Management, which provides clinical treatment aimed at helping people keep weight off in the long term.

— — Edited by Justin Leverett