Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) suppresses appetite through gut distension and brain mechanisms in the hypothalamus.

“What this paper shows is it does that by at least two mechanisms through parallel pathways. What this paper shows is that glucagon-like peptide-1 axon receptors in the body in a portion of the nervous system called the enteric nervous system, E-N-T-E-R-I-C, enteric nervous system. This is a component of your nervous system that you don't really have control over, it's autonomic or automatic. GLP-1 binds to what are called intestinofugal enteric neurons, you don't need to know the name, but those neurons do two things. First of all, they cause some gut distension, so they actually make you feel full. This is incredible, right? A peptide, not actual physical food, but a peptide that stimulates neurons that cause changes in the so-called mechanoreceptors of the gut, of the enteric nervous system and make people feel full. So it can lead to actually mild, or I suppose if levels of GLP-1 are very high, to major gut distension. I think that the levels of GLP-1 that would come from drinking yerba mate and hopefully from appropriate dosaging of the synthetic forms of GLP-1 or drugs that stimulate GLP-1 would cause mild, not major, gut distension, 'cause major gut distension would be uncomfortable. So GLP-1 is acting at the level of gut to increase gut distension, and by way of a pathway that goes from the gut up to the hypothalamus, this little cluster of neurons about the size of a marble that sits above the roof of your mouth, is also suppressing appetite through brain mechanisms.”