The Secret of Feeling Full

A natural hormone turns out to be a powerful appetite suppressant. Could it lead to safe new anti-obesity drugs?

It sounds like a weight watcher's dream come true: a simple hormone, long thought to play an obscure function in the pancreas, turns out instead to be a powerful appetite suppressant--the body's way of telling the brain it's time to push the plate away. If a pharmaceutical company could put it in a pill and sell it at the drugstore, you might, just might, never again have to count calories or wrestle with your willpower. Just pop one of these things before a meal, and your stomach says--entirely on its own--"No, thank you, I've had quite enough."

The scientific name for...

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