http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/970522/health/stories/gourmand_1.html

Thursday May 22 5:14 PM EDT

Disorder Keeps Food on the Brain

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A newly discovered eating disorder causes
some people with injury to the right side of the brain to
compulsively think about and eat fine foods.

The so-called "gourmand syndrome" developed in 34 people with
a right-sided brain injury caused by tumor, concussion, or
stroke. The researchers discovered the syndrome while studying
723 patients with a known or suspected single brain lesion.

The researchers use the French word "gourmand" to define the
syndrome, because the work "describes someone who is heartily
interested in fine food and drink, or simply describes a 'food
lover' the term 'gourmet' is reserved for a food connoisseur."

One patient, a political news journalist, changed to writing columns
on dining after suffering a stroke in the right side of the front
part of his brain.

"Gourmand syndrome is a rare benign eating disorder strongly
linked to damage of the right hemisphere of the brain," says
neurologist Theodor Landis of the University of Geneva in
Switzerland.

Landis and psychologist Dr. Marianne Regard of University
Hospital in Zurich note that the syndrome also occurs in patients
whose seizures arise from that same part of the brain -- the
anterior (front) right hemisphere.

They say this syndrome does not correspond to any known categories
of eating disorders, but some of its features "overlap with
other addictive and obsessive disorders."

"This new syndrome shows the public that addiction and compulsion
disorders, even ones that aren't debilitating, can be due to
damage to a limited area of the brain," Regard says.

In a report published in the May issue of the journal Neurology,
the authors describe a businessman who usually preferred a
tennis match to a fine dinner until he suffered a hemorrhage
deep in the right side of his brain. The stroke victim became so
obsessed with fine food that he couldn't stop talking about it.

"His conversation centered around his food fantasies, and he
grasped every occasion to dine out, being concerned more by quality
than quantity of food," the authors note. "Although he resumed
his previous business and sports activities, he seemed less
engaged."

Diminished engagement with one's job was avoided by the political
journalist, also a stroke victim. But his cravings for fine food
remained equally intense as his fellow gourmand's.

While in the hospital he proclaimed the food "awful," and wrote,
"It is time for a real hearty dinner, e.g., a good sausage with
hash browns or some spaghetti bolognese, or risotto and a breaded
cutlet, nicely decorated, or a scallop of game in cream sauce
with 'Spaatzle' (a Swiss and southern German specialty)...."

Likening his hospitalization to being stuck in a desert, he continued,
"Where is the next oasis? With date trees and lamb roast or
couscous and mint tea, the Moroccan way, real fresh...."

The authors note that gourmand eating occasionally does indicate
localized brain damage "when it occurs in previously 'normal'
eaters."

They say their finding that the syndrome is strongly related to
limited right-sided brain injury "can represent a neurological sign of
diagnostic value." SOURCE: Neurology (1997;48:1195-1190)