It's official. That tub of ice-cream really can control your brain and say "eat me."

A U.S. study by UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas has found that fat from certain foods such ice-cream and burgers heads to the brain.

Once there, the fat molecules trigger the brain to send messages to the body's cells, warning them to ignore the appetite-suppressing signals from leptin and insulin, hormones involved in weight regulation -- for up to three days.

"Normally, our body is primed to say when we've had enough, but that doesn't always happen when we're eating something good," said researcher Deborah Clegg in a statement.

"What we've shown in this study is that someone's entire brain chemistry can change in a very short period of time. Our findings suggest that when you eat something high in fat, your brain gets "hit" with the fatty acids, and you become resistant to insulin and leptin.

"Since you're not being told by the brain to stop eating, you overeat."

The researchers also found that one particular type of fat -- palmitic acid which is found in beef, butter, cheese and milk, -- is particularly effective at instigating this mechanism.

The study was performed on rats and mice but the scientists say their results, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, reinforced common dietary recommendations to limit saturated fat intake as "it causes you to eat more."

The study was conducted by exposing rats and mice to fat in different ways -- by injecting various types of fat directly into the brain, infusing fat through the carotid artery or feeding the animals through a stomach tube three times a day.

The animals received the same amount of calories and fat and only the type of fat differed. The types included palmitic acid, monounsaturated fatty acid and unsaturated oleic acid which is found in olive and grapeseed oils.

"The action was very specific to palmitic acid, which is very high in foods that are rich in saturated-fat," said Clegg.

官方的研究表明：一杯冰激凌确实能够控制你的大脑活动。它说：吃了我吧。

美国达拉斯UT西南医学中心的一项研究发现，某些食物，如冰激凌和汉堡包，其中所含的脂肪直接刺激人的大脑。

当人摄入了哪些食物，脂肪分子就开始刺激大脑向体细胞发送消息，警告它们忽略那些由瘦素、胰岛素以及用于体重控制的荷尔蒙所产生的控制食欲的信号，这种刺激可长达三天的时间。

研究者Deborah Clegg在一次陈述中说道，"正常来说，当我们饱食时，我们的身体最先有反应。但是，当我们正在吃一些好的食物时，情况往往就不是那样了。

"在这项研究中，我们所要表明的是一个人大脑的全部化学成分能够在非常短暂的时间内发生变化。我们的发现成果表明，当你摄入了富含脂肪的食物时，你的大脑受到脂肪酸的刺激，随之你的身体也开始抵制胰岛素和瘦素。

"因为大脑没有告诉你停止摄入食物，你就会过量饮食。"

研究者们也发现了一种富含于牛肉、黄油、干酪和牛奶的特殊脂肪--棕榈酸，对促成这种机制有专门的功效。

这项研究是用白鼠和黑鼠做实验的，而这些科学家说，他们的科研成果被刊登在《临床研究期刊》上，该成果证实了公认的饮食规定建议来限制饱和脂肪摄入量，因为饱和脂肪可以让你吃得更多。

研究者们是通过用不同途径给白鼠和黑鼠摄入脂肪来进行这项研究的。他们直接把不同种类的脂肪注射进大脑里，或通过解剖颈动脉注入脂肪，或者通过胃管给动物喂食物，一日三次。

这些动物摄入了等量的卡路里和脂肪，并且其中只有一种脂肪是不同的。这些脂肪种类中包括棕榈酸、单不饱和脂肪酸和富含于橄榄油和葡萄油中的不饱和油酸。

Clegg说："这项研究可以具体到棕榈酸，这种酸在富含饱和脂肪的食物中含量非常高。"