Appetite shut-off valve discovered by studying flies

Struggling with that post-holiday diet? The good news is that scientists in China have discovered that humans may have a natural mechanism to shut off appetite.

The catch is that the research, for now, appears to apply primarily to one part of a healthy diet: protein. Still, it provides a ray of hope to dieters everywhere.

Li Yan at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Biophysics recently published the results of a study into the dietary habits of fruit flies. The study suggests that organisms have a nutrient-sensing regulator that controls protein levels in the body.