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Biomedical subjects

J Rodin

Publications and source records attributed to J Rodin.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Effects of pure sugar vs. mixed starch fructose loads on food intake.

Using a within-subject design, we gave subjects three different 520-530 kcal preloads in the form of puddings in a randomized fashion at weekly intervals. The puddings contained either 50 g of fructose or glucose as the sole carbohydrate source in a protein and fat mixture, or 50 g fructose plus 15 g of starch. Food intake was assessed 2.25 h after the preload was completed. Blood was drawn throughout and assayed for concentrations of glucose and insulin. When the preload contained fructose alone as the sole source of carbohydrate, subjects ate significantly fewer calories and less fat than when the preload contained glucose alone. When starch was added to the fructose preload, there was no significant reduction in calorie and fat intake. Effects on food intake paralleled the rise in plasma insulin levels produced by the different preloads. Implications for use of fructose as an adjunct to weight control efforts are discussed.

Adult

Mothers, daughters, and disordered eating.

We examined features of 77 mothers' attitudes and behavior that relate to disordered eating among their adolescent daughters. Mothers whose daughters reported a level of disordered eating comparable with clinical samples of bulimic patients were compared with mothers whose daughters reported a low level of eating disturbances. As hypothesized, mothers of daughters with disordered eating were more dissatisfied with the general functioning of the family system. Also, mothers whose daughters were eating disordered were themselves more eating disordered and differed in their dieting history compared with mothers of the girls who were not eating disordered. Furthermore, mothers of girls with disordered eating thought their daughters should lose more weight than mothers of girls who were not eating disordered. They also thought that their daughters were less attractive than the girls judged themselves.

Adolescent

Explanatory style and cell-mediated immunity in elderly men and women.

Correlated pessimistic explanatory style--the belief that negative events are caused by internal, stable, and global factors--with lowered immunocompetence in a sample of 26 older adults. Two measures of cell-mediated immunity--T-helper cell/T-suppressor cell ratio and T-lymphocyte response to mitogen challenge--were lower in individuals with a pessimistic style, controlling for the influence of current health, depression, medication, recent weight change, sleep, and alcohol use. A relative increase in the percentage of T-suppressor cells seemed to underlie this immunosuppression. Although the mechanism by which explanatory style might influence immune function remains unknown, we speculate that a pessimistic style might be an important psychological risk factor--at least among older people--in the early course of certain immune-mediated diseases.

Aged

Stress reactivity and exercise training in premenopausal and postmenopausal women.

Examined the influence of ovarian function on psychophysiological stress responses and determined if aerobic exercise reduced stress reactivity. Fifty premenopausal and postmenopausal women initially were subjected to a public speaking task and an ice-on-the-forehead procedure, during which time their blood pressure and heart rate were monitored and continuous blood samples were obtained. Subjects also underwent aerobic fitness evaluations with a maximum-exercise treadmill test. Subjects were then randomly assigned to a 12-week exercise program of either aerobic exercise (e.g., walking and jogging at a prescribed exercise intensity) or non-aerobic strength and flexibility training and were then reevaluated. Results indicated that postmenopausal women exhibited lower resting epinephrine levels but greater epinephrine reactivity to the speaking task compared to the premenopausal women. There were no differences between premenopausal and postmenopausal women with respect to cardiovascular or catecholamine responses during the cold challenge. Premenopausal and postmenopausal women also achieved comparable improvements in aerobic fitness. However, results of the mental stress testing were complex and provided only partial support for the role of aerobic exercise in reducing stress responses.

Arousal

Impact of environmental stress on the expression of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

To investigate the influence of environmental factors on inherited tendencies, the impact of chronic environmental stress on the expression of a genetically determined autoimmune disease was explored in the bio-breeding (BB) rat, which is an animal model for human autoimmune insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Animals assigned at random to the experimental group received a triad of stressors designed to model chronic moderate stress over a 14-week period. Animals from 25 to 130 days of age were weighed and tested for glycosuria twice weekly. Weekly blood sampling was performed on all animals. Diabetes was diagnosed on the basis of weight loss, 2+ glycosuria, and blood glucose levels of 250+ mg/dl. We found that in the BB rat chronic stress significantly increased the incidence of the phenotypic expression of the gene for Type I diabetes. Eighty percent of the male stress and 70% of the female stress animals developed diabetes, compared with 50% in both control groups. Stressed males developed manifest diabetes at the same time as their matched controls, whereas stressed females had significantly delayed onset in relation to controls.

Animals

Children's representations of "everyday" aspects of health and illness.

Moving beyond a focus on children's conceptions of causation, the study sought to (a) identify and evaluate additional dimensions along which young children's conceptions of illness might be organized and (b) to discover how young children also understand health concepts related to nutrition and routine preventive medical examination. 27 healthy preschool children, ages 4-6 were interviewed about their conceptions of common illness, knowledge of basic nutrition, and understanding of medical procedures and instruments associated with a standard pediatric examination. The findings demonstrated that children understand five characteristics of illness representations, which have also been identified in adults. They include causation, identity, consequence, time line, and cure. Associations among illness dimensions, concepts of nutrition, and knowledge about routine medical examinations were also found and are discussed in terms of their implications for future research.

Adaptation, Psychological

Exercise decreases fat selection in female rats during weight cycling.

Weight cycling (weight loss and regain) increases fat intake in rats allowed to self-select a diet from protein, carbohydrate, and fat sources. This study reports the effects of exercise on macronutrient self-selection. Female Sprague-Dawley rats (5 mo old) self-selected their diet. After 3 wk, rats were assigned to one of the following three groups: ad libitum fed sedentary (Con), sedentary food restricted to 40% Con intake (R-Sed), or treadmill exercised (20 m/min, 1 h/day, 6 day/wk) food restricted to 40% Con intake (R-Ex). Food restriction was for 3 wk followed by 5 wk of refeeding. This was repeated for a second cycle. During restriction, body weight decreased by 30% in R-Sed and by 33% in R-Ex than in R-Sed, fat regain was greater in R-Sed. By week 3 of refeeding, total caloric consumption did not differ. However, fat selection increased in R-Sed (56% kcal) vs. R-Ex (30%) and Con (35%). Fat selection in R-Sed increased further during cycle 2 (73% kcal). Resting oxygen consumption decreased during food restriction in R-Sed and R-Ex. After refeeding, resting metabolic rate in R-Ex was significantly greater than in R-Sed. In conclusion, weight cycling increases dietary fat selection and adiposity. Exercise mitigates this effect.

Adipose Tissue

Women's health. Review and research agenda as we approach the 21st century.

This article reviews past research and projects future research directions regarding women's health. Sex differences in mortality and morbidity, along with evidence that the quality and quantity of these differences are changing, are examined. Over the past decade, concurrent with dramatic changes in lifestyle and social roles for women, mortality rates have shifted, resulting in a decreasing advantage for women. Explaining the consequences of these dynamic changes requires understanding the health effects of such variables as perceived control, the experience of life roles, perceived and actual social support, and redefinition of gender roles. The future portends additional changes that will significantly affect women's health. In establishing an explicit psychological research agenda on women's health, (a) general recommendations for research are provided and (b) important issues that have not yet received a great deal of research attention (e.g., women and AIDS, psychopharmacology, reproductive technologies) are highlighted. This article expands the current discourse in health psychology and raises a number of issues for serious consideration.

Female

Bulimia and taste: possible interactions.

Potential abnormalities of taste were examined in bulimic subjects who purged by vomiting and in controls. When spatial testing of the tongue and palate was performed by direct local application of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter solutions, bulimics showed a selective spatial loss on the palate. The palate may be affected by purging because vomit is directed toward the roof of the mouth where the palate receptors are located. The data suggest that the acid in vomit damages these receptors. Bulimics and controls did not differ in their basal ratings of intensity or pleasantness of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter stimuli when these were sipped rather than directly applied to the tongue. However, after ingesting a glucose load, controls found sweet taste significantly less pleasant, whereas bulimics did not. The results suggest that bulimics may also have an abnormal experience of satiety.

Adolescent

Comparative effects of fructose, aspartame, glucose, and water preloads on calorie and macronutrient intake.

Using a within-subjects design, we gave over-weight and normal-weight subjects a 500-mL drink of fructose, glucose, or aspartame diluted in lemon-flavored water or plain water in a randomized fashion at about weekly intervals. Food intake was assessed at a buffet lunch that began 38 min after the preload was completed. Blood was drawn throughout and assayed for concentrations of glucose, insulin, glucagon, and free fatty acid. When subjects drank the fructose preload, they subsequently ate fewer overall calories and fewer grams of fat than when they drank any of the other preloads. The aspartame load did not stimulate intake beyond the plain-water control. The effects of the oxidation of fructose as a possible mechanism for the reduction in food intake is discussed. The effects of insulin in stimulating intake are also discussed.

Adult

Weight cycling and fat distribution.

Interest in factors that promote a more abdominal fat distribution has arisen because a higher waist-to-hip circumference ratio (WHR) has been linked to several major health risks, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. In the present study we asked whether weight variability, produced by repeated cycles of weight gain and loss, influenced fat distribution toward a more abdominal pattern in premenopausal women. It was found that a higher WHR was significantly associated with a higher degree of weight cycling, controlling for age and parity. A significant association between BMI and WHR was found only in those subjects who were weight cyclers. In addition, number of pregnancies was also associated with a higher WHR. These findings suggest that repeated bouts of weight loss and regain may promote abdominal adiposity and consequently, may contribute to long-term health risks.

Abdomen

Stimulus-induced eating when satiated.

Two studies investigated factors that promote the desire for food when people are not energy depleted. In Study 1, 20 male and female subjects, tested under conditions of either hunger or satiety, were exposed to one of two palatable foods (pizza or ice cream) and then given more of that food to eat. Operationally-satiated subjects still ate pizza or ice cream, and the sight of these foods enhanced reported desire for them. The amount of these foods consumed was predicted by the subjects' self-reported desire for the food. In Study 2, 28 male subjects were fed to satiety, then primed with either pizza or ice cream (or not primed at all) and then given both pizza and ice cream to eat. Results showed that a brief taste of a desirable food enhanced its intake relative to the other, equally-preferred food. The data are discussed in the context of the effects of priming as a form of appetite whetting. Also, it is suggested that our operations for eliciting stimulus-induced eating in sated subjects may be useful for future examinations of the psychological properties of craving.

Adolescent

Modulation of behavioral and insulin responses by contextual stimuli paired with food.

A context-like conditioned stimulus (CS) previously paired with a food unconditioned stimulus (US) enhanced both food-related activity and insulin secretion in rats. Experiment 1 documented the effectiveness of an appetitive conditioning procedure in which a 10 sec visual CS ("x") was followed by food when embedded within one 35 sec auditory CS ("A"), but not another ("B"). Approach to a food magazine during x was enhanced (facilitated) when x was within A, as compared to within B or alone. Experiment 2 documented the adequacy of blood sampling and insulin assay procedures that could be accommodated to the conditioning procedure. Plasma insulin was observably different after unconditioned deliveries of glucose solutions of different intensities. In Experiment 3, training as in Experiment 1 was followed by testing for food magazine approach and changes in insulin levels following x alone or in the presence of A or B. It was demonstrated that the A cue enhanced both responses. The results support the view [e.g., (18,19)] that insulin secretion is in part under the control of environmental cues, and findings (22) that show that conditioned context-like cues can modulate consummatory responding to punctate CSs.

Animals

Identifying eating patterns in male and female undergraduates using cluster analysis.

Although there is substantial research on eating patterns, little effort has been paid to developing a classification of eating behavior applicable to the general population, rather than to people seeking help for obesity or eating disorders. Using cluster analysis, this study identified six types of eating patterns among normal volunteers. One hundred and sixteen females and 70 males completed a questionnaire concerning weight history, food intake patterns, use of satiation cues, and attitudes toward weight gain. Subjects also completed the Restraint Scale (Herman & Polivy, 1975). Height and weight were measured. Factor analysis reduced the questionnaire to nine internally reliable and meaningful scales; these were then entered into a K-means cluster analysis of subjects. Of the six clusters, two represented mild forms of disordered eating, two could be considered to represent more regulated eating styles, and two were distinguished by differential sensitivity to internal satiation cues. Construct validity of clusters was explored against gender, degree of overweight and scores on the Restraint Scale. Discussion focuses on the values of a cluster analytic technique to identify multidimensional patterns of food intake.

Adult

Psychological features of obesity.

The study of obesity from a variety of psychological perspectives has been exciting and inventive, although we still do not understand fully the role of psychological variables in the etiology of obesity. Many of the factors thought to be of etiologic significance--field dependence, lack of impulse control, inability to delay gratification, or a maladaptive eating style--have not been supported by experimental evidence. Other factors once thought to be of importance as causes of obesity, depression and dysphoria, for example, appear, instead, to be consequences of being obese and may serve to maintain and intensify weight-related problems. Dieting behavior in response to weight concerns appears, perversely, to be implicated in increasing overweight and adiposity. Finally, arousability in response to food cues in the environment may play a causal role in some obesities.

Eating

Styles of self-nurturance and disordered eating.

This study explores the relation between self-nurturance and disordered eating. Both structured questionnaires and forms requesting open-ended descriptions of themselves and their parents were administered to bulimic (n = 18), dieting restrainer (n = 20), and nonrestrainer (n = 20) women. The use of food-related and non-food-related forms of nurturance was assessed, as were subjects' reactivity to positive and negative events, levels of dependency, self-criticism, and efficacy. Factor analysis of the various scales yielded three factors: Non-Food-Related Self-Nurturance, Negative Reactivity, and Food-Related Self-Nurturance. The results indicated that bulimics were less likely to nurture themselves in non-food-related ways and derived a greater percentage of their total self-nurturance from food than both restrainers and nonrestrainers. The results also indicated that bulimics engaged in a greater degree of negative self-criticism and reactivity to negative events than nonrestrainers. Differences between bulimics and restrainers are explored in detail. The results are discussed in relation to self-nurturance and its implication for the treatment of bulimia.

Adaptation, Psychological