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The evolution of the control of food intake

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2007

A. W. Illius ,
B. J. Tolkamp  and
J. Yearsley
A. W. Illius*
Affiliation:
Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Rd, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK
B. J. Tolkamp
Affiliation:
Animal Nutrition and Health Department, Animal Biology Division, Scottish Agricultural College, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK
J. Yearsley
Affiliation:
Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, UK
*
*Corresponding author: Professor A. W. Illius, fax +44 131 650 5446, email [email protected]
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Abstract

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The ultimate goal of an organism is to maximise its inclusive fitness, and an important sub-goal must be the optimisation of the lifetime pattern of food intake, in order to meet the nutrient demands of survival, growth and reproduction. The conventional assumption that fitness is maximised by maximising daily food intake, subject to physical and physiological constraints, has been challenged recently. Instead, it can be argued that fitness is maximised by balancing benefits and costs over the organism's lifetime. The fitness benefits of food intake are a function of its contribution to survival, growth (including necessary body reserves) and reproduction. Against these benefits must be set costs. These costs include not only extrinsic foraging costs and risks, such as those due to predation, but also intrinsic costs associated with food intake, such as obesity and oxidative metabolism that may reduce vitality and lifespan. We argue that the aggregate of benefits and costs form the fitness function of food intake and present examples of such an approach to predicting optimal food intake.

Keywords

Food intakeLinear programmingCost-benefitFitness
Type
Symposium on ‘Perspectives in the study of food intake’
Information
Proceedings of the Nutrition Society , Volume 61 , Issue 4 , November 2002 , pp. 465 - 472
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 2002

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