Research progress in food preferences mechanisms and their impact on obesity

In recent years, the global prevalence of obesity has continued to rise, with a preference for high-sugar and high-fat foods being one of the primary contributors to this condition. Food preference refers to the degree of individual liking for specific foods, and its formation is closely related to the physiological effects such as satiety, satisfaction and reward that occur after food digestion in the gastrointestinal tract. With the continuous advancement of technologies such as neuroimaging and chemogenetics, the underlying neural and physiological mechanisms of food preference behavior are gradually being elucidated. Studies have shown that the digestion and absorption of food in the gastrointestinal tract can release chemical or electrical signals, which are transmitted to the central nervous system via neural pathways, humoral pathways and the gut-brain axis mediated by gut microbiota. Subsequently, these signals regulate feeding behavior by activating or inhibiting neurons in the nucleus of the solitary tract, the dopaminergic reward pathways and relevant neural circuits in the hypothalamus. Based on this, the article introduces the definition, evaluation methods and mechanisms of food preference, and reviews the pathways of food information transmission within the gut-brain axis, the reward circuits that modulate food preference and the application of food preference behavior to the treatment of obesity, in order to provide reference for research in the field of food preference and obesity treatment.