@the.living.room.pod: Could a lack of protein be driving you to eat more? According to Zachary Knight, PhD — Professor of Physiology at the University of California San Francisco and a leading researcher studying the neural circuits that regulate hunger — there's a concept known as protein leveraging. The idea is simple: if the body doesn't get enough protein, it may drive us to keep eating in an attempt to reach a minimum protein requirement. Research in animals has shown that when diets are too low in protein, they often consume more total calories trying to make up the difference. In other words, hunger isn't always about needing more food. Sometimes it's about needing more of a specific nutrient. It's one more example of how appetite is regulated by biology in ways most of us rarely think about. Explore the science of hunger, appetite, and body weight regulation in the full episode, available now on all major streaming platforms.

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Monday 08 June 2026 17:11:23 GMT