Scientists are trying to manipulate the brain into thinking healthier foods are more delicious to aid in issues such as obesity and improper nutrition. Neurogastronomy is the ability to change neuron signals in order to trick the brain via taste or smell that something is delicious, whether a person likes the food or not. “They could help make nutritious food more appealing to people whose taste and smell receptors are greatly altered because of chemotherapy. In the case of patients struggling with compulsive eating or obesity, the techniques could make nutritious foods at least as enticing as foods they crave.” While researchers are not making broccoli taste like chocolate just yet, those are the hopes for the future—to make physically flavoring foods obsolete and instead have foods mentally “flavored” to help a series of health issues. 

A vaccine could help lower cholesterol. The vaccine has only been tested on mice and monkeys so far, but researchers are hopeful that it will have positive effects on the human body. “The vaccine targets a protein called PCSK9 that’s involved the management of cholesterol levels in the blood. By interfering with PCSK9, the researchers are able to lower cholesterol in the blood, and have shown that just one vaccination has significantly cut down on LDL cholesterol (considered the bad type of cholesterol) levels in lab animals.” The vaccine appears to be more effective than using a statin to control cholesterol and risk of heart disease.