Hunger, Eating and Health

Flashcards on Hunger, Eating and Health.

Digestion

The gastrointestinal process of breaking down food and absorbing its constituents into the body.

Three forms energy is delivered to the body

Fats, amino acids, and glucose.

Energy metabolism

Chemical changes that make energy available for use.

Cephalic phase

Sight, smell, or thought of food prior to intake.

Absorptive phase

Energy is absorbed into the bloodstream.

Fasting phase

Usage of all stored energy reserves.

Insulin

High during cephalic and absorptive phases, triggers glucose use as fuel.

Glucagon

High during fasting phase, triggers change of stored energy to usable fuel.

Gluconeogenesis

Conversion of protein to glucose.

Set-Point Assumption of Hunger

Hunger is a response to an energy need to maintain an energy set point.

Set-point mechanism

Defines the set point in a set-point system.

Detector mechanism

Detects deviations from the set point.

Effector mechanism

Acts to eliminate deviations from the set point.

Glucostatic theories

The main purpose of eating is to defend a blood glucose set point.

Lipostatic theories

Deviations from body fat's set point produce adjustments in eating.

Positive-Incentive Theory

Humans are drawn to eat by the anticipated pleasure of eating.

Adaptive species-typical preferences

Sweet and fatty foods, high in vitamins and minerals.

Adaptive species-typical aversions

Bitter foods, often associated with toxins.

Nutritive Density

Calories per unit volume of food.

Appetizer Effect

Increases hunger rather than reducing it due to cephalic-phase response.

Sensory-Specific Satiety

Signals from taste receptors decline the positive-incentive value of similar tastes.

Cafeteria Diet

Offering of varied diet of highly palatable foods

Ventromedial (VMH)

A satiety center. Lesions produce hyperphagia.

Hyperphagia

Excessive eating.

Lateral (LH)

A feeding center. Lesions produce aphagia and adipsia.

Aphagia

Cessation of eating.

Adipsia

Cessation of drinking.

Cholecystokinin (CCK)

Gut peptides that decrease meal size.

Neuropeptide Y

Hunger peptides synthesized in the hypothalamus.

Serotonin agonists

Consistently reduce rats' food intake.

Prader-Willi Syndrome

Insatiable appetite, slow metabolism, genetic damage on chromosome 15.

Diet-induced thermogenesis

Mechanism by which the body adjusts energy utilization in response to body fat levels.

Basal Metabolic Rate

Rate at which energy is utilized to maintain bodily processes when resting.

Settling Point

Body weight drifts around a natural equilibrium.

Leptin

A negative feedback fat signal released by fat cells.

Gastric Bypass

Short-circuiting the normal path of food through the digestive tract to reduce absorption.

Adjustable Gastric Band

Surgically positioning a band around the stomach to reduce food flow.

Anorexia

Voluntary self-starvation.

Bulimia

Binging and purging, excessive exercise.