A <a href="http:// " target="_blank">calorie overload may lead not only to tighter jeans, but a wackier brain.
New research in the <a href="http://www.cell.com " target="_blank">journal Cell suggests that eating far more calories than you need may throw critical portions of the brain out of whack.
And that's true even if you don't gain any weight.
The researchers from the <a href="http:// " target="_blank">University of Wisconsin at Madison said there's a special pathway in the brain that normally stays inactive.
Eating too much can activate it, and once that happens, there's a cascading reaction, leading to hormonal imbalances related to obesity.
Scientists said that when they managed to keep that pathway from working in animal brains, the animals were protected from obesity.
