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Genes, the environment and the control of food intake

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

John M. de Castro*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA
*
*Corresponding author: Dr John M. de Castro, fax +1 915 747 6553, email [email protected]
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Abstract

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Genes are known to have independent influences on the height and weight of individuals, their overall levels of nutrient intakes and their meal sizes and frequencies. Recent evidence suggests that genes exert multiple and subtle influences on the controls of food intake. There are significant genetic influences on the level and responsiveness of the individual to physiological factors, such as the preprandial stomach contents of nutrients and subjective hunger, and also to environmental and psychological factors such as social facilitation of eating, diurnal rhythms of intake, palatability, cognitive restraint and dietary density. The general model of intake regulation provides an integrated and comprehensive account of how these physiological and environmental factors might fit together to produce the control of intake and body weight.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 2004

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