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"One does not become fat on one mouthful." The Chinese proverb perhaps also applies to the stepwise fashion by which biomedical research evolves. Indeed, obesity has in the past been both revered and scorned as a signifier of social status, and alternatively blanketed as a glandular problem or a lack of self-control. Scientists are still striving, "mouthful by mouthful," to understand the complexities of hunger, satiety, obesity, and anorexia. Ghrelin is a hormone, secreted by the stomach, that acts on the hypothalamus and pituitary, in part to promote the secretion of growth hormone. The review article by Hosoda et al. (pp 494­503) discusses the latest findings that implicate ghrelin in the regulation of neural networks that control feeding and energy balance, and that may represent a target for pharmacological control of diseases related to eating. (Cover image from William Wadd's Comments on Corpulency, ca. 1816. Courtesy of the Historical Collection, Eskind Biomedical Library, Vanderbilt University.)