Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “FOOD”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

Effects of food deprivation and metabolic fuel utilization on food hoarding by jirds (Meriones shawi).

Food hoarding plays an important role in the energetic repertoire of a variety of mammalian species. Both food hoarding and food intake have been examined in rodents using several energetic challenges including food deprivation, treatment with metabolic fuel blockers, and enhancement of fuel storage. In the present experiment, we examined food hoarding by female jirds (Meriones shawi), a desert rodent species occupying the arid steppes and desert regions of Egypt. Jirds are prodigious hoarders in the field; however, virtually nothing is known about their hoarding within controlled laboratory settings. In the present study, the effects of food deprivation as well as alterations in metabolic fuel utilization (i.e., 2-deoxy-D-glucose and isophane insulin) on food hoarding and food intake were tested in female jirds using a simulated burrow system. Jirds decreased body mass and increased food consumption following either 32 or 56-h food deprivation. Food hoarding, however, was virtually abolished after food deprivation and treatment with 2-DG. In contrast, isophane insulin treatment had no effect on food consumption or hoarding in this species. Taken together, the present results suggest that total body mass (fat), rather than short-term metabolic fuel utilization, regulates both food consumption and hoarding in female jirds. In addition, these results provide a novel set of appetitive responses to these energetic challenges in small mammals.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2006

Household food insecurity and food expenditure in Bolivia, Burkina Faso, And the Philippines.

This study examined the association between food insecurity, determined by a modified version of the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module (US HFSSM), and total daily per capita (DPC) consumption (measured as household expenditures) in Bolivia, Burkina Faso, and the Philippines. Household food insecurity was determined by an adapted 9-item US HFSSM version. A short version of the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) consumption module measured household expenditures. Focus groups were used to adapt the survey instrument to each local context. The sample (n approximately 330 per country) includes residents of urban and rural areas. A 12-month food expenditure aggregate was generated as part of the total household expenditures calculation. DPC food expenditure, which represented over 60% of the total household consumption, as well as expenditures on specific food groups correlated with food insecurity both as a continuous Food Insecurity Score (FinSS) and a tricategorical food insecurity status variable. ANOVA and regression analysis were executed adjusting for social and demographic covariates. Food-secure households have significantly higher (P < 0.05) total DPC food expenditures as well as expenditures on animal source foods, vegetables, and fats and oils than moderately and severely food-insecure households. The results offer evidence that the US HFSSM is able to discriminate between households at different levels of food insecurity status in diverse developing world settings.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

An investigation into food preferences and the neural basis of food-related incentive motivation in Prader-Willi syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Research into the excessive eating behaviour associated with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) to date has focused on homeostatic and behavioural investigations. The aim of this study was to examine the role of the reward system in such eating behaviour, in terms of both the pattern of food preferences and the neural substrates of incentive in the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). METHOD: Participants with PWS (n = 18) were given a food preference interview to examine food preferences and to inform the food-related incentive task to be conducted during the neuroimaging. Thirteen individuals with PWS took part in the positron emission tomography (PET) study, the design of which was based on a previous study of non-obese, non-PWS controls. For the task, participants were asked to consider photographs of food and to choose the food they would most like to eat in two conditions, one of high and one of low incentive foods, tailored to each participant's preferences. For comparison of the food preference data, 12 non-PWS individuals were given one part of the interview. RESULTS: Individuals with PWS expressed relative liking of different foods and showed preferences that were consistent over time, particularly for sweet foods. The participants with PWS did give the foods in the high incentive condition a significantly higher incentive value than the foods in the low incentive condition. However, activation of the amygdala and medial OFC was not associated with the prospect of highly valued foods as predicted in those with PWS. CONCLUSIONS: It would appear that incentive motivation alone plays a less powerful role in individuals with PWS than in those without the syndrome. This is likely to be due to the overriding intrinsic drive to eat because of a lack of satiety in those with PWS, and the impact of this on activity in the incentive processing regions of the brain. Activity in such reward areas may not then function to guide behaviour selectively towards the consumption of high preference foods.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Food as a circadian Zeitgeber for house sparrows: the effect of different food access durations.

House sparrows (Passer domesticus) can synchronize their circadian rhythms of locomotion and feeding with times of periodic food availability. In contrast to most mammals, which synchronize only a specific part of their circadian system with feeding cycles and thus express two distinct activity components, house sparrows synchronize their circadian activity rhythms as a whole with the food zeitgeber. Previous results had indicated that feeding cycles act as comparatively weak zeitgebers for house sparrows. In the present study, therefore, we investigate whether feeding schedules are weak zeitgebers in general or whether their impact on the circadian system of the birds depends on the degree of food restriction. A detailed analysis of the synchronization pattern under the different experimental conditions should help to clarify whether house sparrows use a different mechanism for food-synchronization than mammals. House sparrows were kept in continuous dim light and exposed to different feeding schedules with daily food access durations ranging from 8 to 20 h. Many birds lost synchronization and exhibited free-running rhythms in locomotor and feeding activity when the daily food access duration was lengthened but became synchronized when the feeding duration was shortened. The interpretation that short food access durations represent stronger zeitgebers than long food access durations was supported by the occurrence of large negative phase-angle differences during long daily feeding schedules, contrasting with small and sometimes positive phase-angle differences under short food access durations. There were no indications that house sparrows possess a specific food-entrainable circadian oscillator as mammals do. Rather, periodic food availability seems to be a zeitgeber for the whole circadian system, which, hence, can be synchronized both by light and food. An explanation for such different mechanisms of food-synchronization is offered in the feeding ecology of these animals. Birds may evaluate the importance of a specific feeding schedule as a zeitgeber either from temporal information on the duration of the daily food access time or from energetic considerations. The phase-angle differences associated with the different feeding schedules and the maintenance of daily activity times may ensure an appropriate temporal integration of behavior with specific conditions. Non-synchronized birds exhibited masking-induced feeding activity, which might represent an alternative means of adjusting to feeding cycles when synchronization cannot occur.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Consumer food handling in the home: a review of food safety studies.

Epidemiological data from Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand indicate that a substantial proportion of foodborne disease is attributable to improper food preparation practices in consumers' homes. International concern about consumer food safety has prompted considerable research to evaluate domestic food-handling practices. The majority of consumer food safety studies in the last decade have been conducted in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland (48%) and in the United States (42%). Surveys (questionnaires and interviews), the most frequent means of data collection, were used in 75% of the reviewed studies. Focus groups and observational studies have also been used. One consumer food safety study examined the relationship between pathogenic microbial contamination from raw chicken and observed food-handling behaviors, and the results of this study indicated extensive Campylobacter cross-contamination during food preparation sessions. Limited information about consumers' attitudes and intentions with regard to safe food-handling behaviors has been obtained, although a substantial amount of information about consumer knowledge and self-reported practices is available. Observation studies suggest that substantial numbers of consumers frequently implement unsafe food-handling practices. Knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and self-reported practices did not correspond to observed behaviors, suggesting that observational studies provide a more realistic indication of the food hygiene actions actually used in domestic food preparation. An improvement in consumer food-handling behavior is likely to reduce the risk and incidence of foodborne disease. The need for the development and implementation of food safety education strategies to improve specific food safety behaviors is reviewed in this paper.

Consumer Product Safety↗
PubMed1990

Contributions of food groups to intakes of energy, nutrients, cholesterol, and fiber in women's diets: effect of method of classifying food mixtures.

This study examined the effect of using two different methods for categorizing food mixtures when calculating the contribution of various food groups to energy, macronutrient, cholesterol, and fiber intakes. Using method 1, each food mixture was classified as a single item and assigned to a food group according to its main ingredient. Using method 2, most of the food mixtures were separated into their constituent ingredients, and each ingredient was assigned to its appropriate food group. Data were from 1,032 women who provided at least 4 days of dietary data in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 1985 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals. We found that the importance of each food group's contribution to individual dietary components varied depending on the method used to categorize the food mixtures. When food mixtures were separated into their constituent ingredients before assigning foods to food groups, the contributions of meat, fish, poultry, and grain products declined for each of the seven dietary components studied. At the same time, the contributions of milk products, fats, and oils increased for most of the seven components. The results highlight the importance of foods eaten as part of food mixtures to the intake of energy, macronutrients, cholesterol, and fiber.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

The use of food consumption data in assessments of exposure to food chemicals including the application of probabilistic modelling.

Emphasis on public health and consumer protection, in combination with globalisation of the food market, has created a strong demand for exposure assessments of food chemicals. The food chemicals for which exposure assessments are required include food additives, pesticide residues, environmental contaminants, mycotoxins, novel food ingredients, packaging-material migrants, flavouring substances and nutrients. A wide range of methodologies exists for estimating exposure to food chemicals, and the method chosen for a particular exposure assessment is influenced by the nature of the chemical, the purpose of the assessment and the resources available. Sources of food consumption data currently used in exposure assessments range from food balance sheets to detailed food consumption surveys of individuals and duplicate-diet studies. The fitness-for-purpose of the data must be evaluated in the context of data quality and relevance to the assessment objective. Methods to combine the food consumption data with chemical concentration data may be deterministic or probabilistic. Deterministic methods estimate intakes of food chemicals that may occur in a population, but probabilistic methods provide the advantage of estimating the probability with which different levels of intake will occur. Probabilistic analysis permits the exposure assessor to model the variability (true heterogeneity) and uncertainty (lack of knowledge) that may exist in the exposure variables, including food consumption data, and thus to examine the full distribution of possible resulting exposures. Challenges for probabilistic modelling include the selection of appropriate modes of inputting food consumption data into the models.

Consumer Product Safety↗
PubMed2006

Estimation of exposure to food packaging materials. 1: Development of a food-packaging database.

A food-packaging database was developed to provide qualitative information on the types of packaging materials used for foods. Packaging information was collected from a sample of 594 children aged 5-12 years as part of a national children's food survey carried out in Ireland during 2003-04. All the food packaging collected during the survey was forwarded to the coordinating centre for further analysis and entry into the Irish Food Packaging Database. The database was created in Microsoft Access and stored information on: the brand of the food, the packaging type, the unit weight, the contact layer, the European Union food type (i.e. aqueous, acidic, alcoholic or fatty) and other relevant parameters. Of the 5551 different brand foods consumed by children in the food survey, packaging information was collected on 3441 (62%). As some brand foods had different unit weights and packaging formats, there was duplication of some brand foods in the database to account for this fact. Therefore, there were 3672 packaging entries in the database. Of these, plastics were the most common packaging contact layer (n = 2874, 78.3%). Multimaterial multilayers with a plastic contact layer accounted for 459 (12.5%) entries. Polyethylene was the most frequently used contact layer (n = 941), with polypropylene a close second (n = 809). This database is unique in Europe for the quality and amount of food packaging information it contains and could be used to develop packaging use factors for a more refined exposure assessment to food packaging materials in the European Union.

Beverages↗
PubMed2003

Microbiological quality of food in relation to hazard analysis systems and food hygiene training in UK catering and retail premises.

A meta-analysis of eight UK food studies was carried out to determine the microbiological quality of food and its relationship with the presence in food businesses of hazard analysis systems and food hygiene training. Of the 19,022 premises visited to collect food samples in these studies between 1997 and 2002, two thirds (66%) were catering premises and one third (34%) were retail premises. Comparison with PHLS Microbiological Guidelines revealed that significantly more ready-to-eat food samples from catering premises (20%; 2,511/12,703) were of unsatisfactory or unacceptable microbiological quality compared to samples from retail premises (12%; 1,039/8,462) (p < 0.00001). Three quarters (76%) of retail premises had hazard analysis systems in place compared with 59% of catering premises (p < 0.00001). In 87% of retail premises the manager had received some form of food hygiene training compared with 80% of catering premises (p < 0.00001). From premises where the manager had received no food hygiene training a greater proportion of samples were of unsatisfactory and unacceptable microbiological quality (20% retail, 27% catering) compared with premises where the manager had received food hygiene training (11% retail, 19% catering) (p < 0.00001). Where the manager of the premises had received food hygiene training, documented hazard analysis systems were more likely to be in place (p < 0.00001). Higher proportions of samples of unsatisfactory and unacceptable microbiological quality (17% retail, 22% catering) were from premises where there was no hazard analysis system in place compared to premises that had a documented hazard analysis system in place (10% retail, 18% catering) (p < 0.00001). Our meta-analysis suggests that the lower microbiological quality of ready-to-eat foods from catering premises compared with those collected from retail premises may reflect differences in management food hygiene training and the presence of a hazard analysis system. The importance of adequate training for food handlers and their managers as a pre-requisite for effective hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) based controls is therefore emphasised.

Allied Health Personnel↗
PubMed2003

Increases in food intake or food-seeking behavior induced by GABAergic, opioid, or dopaminergic stimulation of the nucleus accumbens: is it hunger?

RATIONALE: Previous work has shown that stimulation of GABAergic, opioid, or dopaminergic systems within the nucleus accumbens modulates food intake and food-seeking behavior. However, it is not known whether such stimulation mimics a motivational state of food deprivation that commonly enables animals to learn a new operant response to obtain food. OBJECTIVES: In order to address this question, acquisition of lever pressing for food in hungry animals was compared with acquisition in non-food-deprived rats subjected to various nucleus accumbens drug treatments. METHODS: All animals were given the opportunity to learn an instrumental response (a lever press) to obtain a food pellet. Prior to training, ad lib-fed rats were infused with the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)A agonist muscimol (100 ng/0.5 microl per side) or the mu-opioid receptor agonist D-Ala2, N-me-Phe4, Gly-ol5-enkephalin (DAMGO, 0.25 microg/0.5 microl per side), or saline into the nucleus accumbens shell (AcbSh). The indirect dopamine agonist amphetamine (10 microg/0.5 microl per side) was infused into the AcbSh or nucleus accumbens core (AcbC) of ad lib-fed rats. An additional group was food deprived and infused with saline in the AcbSh. Chow and sugar pellet intake responses after drug treatments were also evaluated in free-feeding tests. RESULTS: Muscimol, DAMGO, or amphetamine did not facilitate acquisition of lever pressing for food, despite clearly increasing food intake in free-feeding tests. In contrast, food-deprived animals rapidly learned the task. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that pharmacological stimulation of any of these neurochemical systems in isolation is insufficient to enable acquisition of a food-reinforced operant task. Thus, these selective processes, while likely involved in control of food intake and food-seeking behavior, appear unable to recapitulate the conditions necessary to mimic the state of negative energy balance.

Amphetamine↗
PubMed1994

Comparative advantage of 3-day food records over 24-hour recall and 5-day food frequency validated by observation of 9- and 10-year-old girls.

OBJECTIVE: The validity of the 24-hour recall, 3-day food record, and 5-day food frequency was assessed to decide on a dietary assessment method for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Growth and Health Study. DESIGN: All subjects were assigned to one of three dietary assessment methods. Unobtrusive observers recorded types and amounts of foods eaten during lunch, and these were compared with the foods reported by the girls in the study. SETTING: School lunchrooms in California and Ohio. SUBJECTS: 58 girls, aged 9 and 10 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Reporting errors for dietary assessment methods. STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED: Descriptive statistics, matched pair t tests, and Spearman correlation coefficients. RESULTS: Comparison of the intakes of energy and selected macronutrients showed different ranges of, and median percentage absolute errors for, each dietary assessment method. Percentage absolute errors ranged between 20 and 33 for the 5-day food frequency method; 19 and 39 for the 24-hour recall; and 12 and 22 for the 3-day food record. The proportion of missing foods (ie, observed food items not reported) and phantom foods (ie, reported food items not observed) by each method were 46% and 40%, respectively, for the 5-day food frequency; 30% and 33%, respectively, for the 24-hour recall; and 25% and 10%, respectively, for the 3-day food record. APPLICATIONS/CONCLUSIONS: Errors in food reporting and quantification can vary with the type of dietary methodology. Agreement between observed and reported intakes from 3-day food records made it the best overall choice. On this basis, it was selected as the method of assessment for the NHLBI Growth and Health Study.

Bias↗
PubMed2003

Nutrients, foods, and dietary patterns as exposures in research: a framework for food synergy.

Evidence is synthesized that foods and food patterns act synergistically to influence the risk of several chronic diseases. Whole-grain consumption and risk of disease are presented as a model of food synergy. Food synergy is defined as additive or more than additive influences of foods and food constituents on health. Risk appears to be lower with consumption of whole grain than of refined grain; that is, benefit accrues when all edible parts of the grain are included (bran, germ, and endosperm). It appears that phytochemicals that are located in the fiber matrix, in addition to or instead of the fiber itself, are responsible for the reduced risk. Risk is further reduced if whole-grain foods are consumed in a diet otherwise high in plant foods. To gain full understanding of the pathways by which food synergies work, it is desirable to use several "top down" approaches, starting with the larger units, namely foods or food patterns, and working down to smaller units that provide protection from disease. Study of foods, food patterns, and individual nutrients or food components in reducing disease risk is seen as complementary. Epidemiologic, clinical trial, and in vitro approaches to such research are needed.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Food choices at lunch during the third year of life: high selection of animal and starchy foods but avoidance of vegetables.

AIM: The objective was to show patterns of food selection by 2- to 3-y-old children for a wide variety of foods in a self-service cafeteria and to assess the effect of individual variables (gender, BMI, mode of feeding after birth and rank in sibship). METHODS: In a nursery self-service canteen, food choices at lunch made by children (n=418, 24-36 mo; 109 observations per child on average) were recorded by trained assistants who monitored portion size. An offer of eight dishes (animal products, starchy foods, combination dishes, vegetables and dairy products), excluding dessert-type foods, was proposed. Choice level was calculated for each food. Analysis of variance was used to compare choices for the various foods and to assess the effect of the individual variables. RESULTS: The choice of a food largely depended upon its nature: animal products, starchy foods and their combinations were widely chosen, whereas vegetables were not often selected; the choice for dairy products depended upon the type. The mode of preparation of the food influenced its choice. Segmenting products were identified; however, except for cheeses, a given child did not refuse an entire food category. Children's characteristics did not explain the choice variability. CONCLUSION: At the age of 2 to 3 y, children preferentially choose animal products and starchy foods and avoid vegetables; the high individual variability of their food choices could be related to previous food experiences.

Cheese↗
PubMed2003

Agouti-related protein increases food hoarding more than food intake in Siberian hamsters.

Agouti-related protein (AgRP), an endogenous melanocortin 3/4 receptor antagonist, appears to play an important role in the control of food intake and energy balance because exogenous administration in rats and overexpression in mice result in hyperphagia and body mass gain. Furthermore, arcuate nucleus AgRP mRNA is increased with fasting in laboratory rats and mice and is decreased with refeeding. In Siberian hamsters, fasting also increases arcuate nucleus AgRP mRNA, but these animals increase food hoarding, rather than food intake with refeeding. Therefore, we tested whether exogenous AgRP increased food hoarding in this species. Hamsters were trained in a hoarding/foraging apparatus to run a programmed number of wheel revolutions to earn food pellets. Four doses of AgRP-(83-132) or vehicle were injected into the third ventricle at the beginning of the dark phase, and food hoarding, food intake, and foraging were measured at various time points subsequently. Overall, food hoarding was stimulated as much as 10 times more than food intake, and both responses occurred as early as 1 h after injection. Food hoarding was increased the greatest at the lowest dose (0.1 nmol), whereas food intake was increased the greatest at the second lowest dose (1 nmol). Food intake and especially food hoarding were increased up to seven days after the AgRP injections. Foraging was increased at all AgRP doses except the highest dose (100 nmol). These results suggest that AgRP triggers the search for food in this species, and once they find it, hoarding predominates over eating.

Agouti-Related Protein↗
PubMed2005

Role of NPY and its receptor subtypes in foraging, food hoarding, and food intake by Siberian hamsters.

Fasting has widespread physiological and behavioral effects such as increases in arcuate nucleus neuropeptide Y (NPY) gene expression in rodents, including Siberian hamsters. Fasting also stimulates foraging and food hoarding (appetitive ingestive behaviors) by Siberian hamsters but does relatively little to change food intake (consummatory ingestive behavior). Therefore, we tested the effects of third ventricular NPY Y1 ([Pro(34)]NPY) or Y5 ([D-Trp(34)]NPY) receptor agonists on these ingestive behaviors using a wheel running-based food delivery system coupled with simulated burrow housing. Siberian hamsters had 1) no running wheel access and free food, 2) running wheel access and free food, or 3) foraging requirements (10 or 50 revolutions/pellet). NPY (1.76 nmol) stimulated food intake only during the first 4 h postinjection ( approximately 200-1,000%) and mostly in hamsters with a foraging requirement. The Y1 receptor agonist markedly increased food hoarding (250-1,000%), increased foraging as well as wheel running per se, and had relatively little effect on food intake (<250%). Unlike NPY, the Y5 agonist significantly increased food intake, especially in foraging animals ( approximately 225-800%), marginally increased food hoarding (250-500%), and stimulated foraging and wheel running 4-24 h postinjection, with the distribution of earned pellets favoring eating versus hoarding across time. Across treatments, food hoarding predominated early postinjection, whereas food intake tended to do so later. Collectively, NPY stimulated both appetitive and consummatory ingestive behaviors in Siberian hamsters involving Y1/Y5 receptors, with food hoarding and foraging/wheel running (appetitive) more involved with Y1 receptors and food intake (consummatory) with Y5 receptors.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

The activity of neurones in the lateral hypothalamus and zona incerta of the sheep responding to the sight or approach of food is modified by learning and satiety and reflects food preference.

Single unit recordings were made from neurones in the lateral hypothalamus and zona incerta of conscious sheep during the static visual presentation of food or visible approach of food towards the animal's mouth. The ability of this population of neurones to modulate their activity as a result of learning and satiety was investigated together with the extent to which their responsiveness reflected individual food preference. These neurones did not respond to either the sight or visible approach of a nonsense object or a food which they would not eat. Further, when the sight or approach of food which the animal desired to eat was not paired with ingestion the neurones rapidly extinguished their response. The magnitude of the neuronal response and the number of trials to extinction was dependent upon the animal's preference for a particular food: the most preferred food evoking the greatest response and being the most resistant to extinction. Following extinction the neuronal response to the sight or approach of food could be re-established after one or two trials with food reinforcement. If the sheep was repeatedly given the same food to eat the magnitude of the neuronal response and the number of trials to extinction gradually declined until no response occurred when the animal refused to eat. These cells could also be induced to respond differentially to the approach of non-food objects dependent upon whether they were associated with a food reward or not. Thus a response could be evoked to the sight or approach of a black bottle if it was associated with a food reward but not to a yellow bottle unassociated with feeding.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed2003

An examination of at-home food preparation activity among low-income, food-insecure women.

A secondary analysis of data from a study of nutritional vulnerability among 153 women in families seeking charitable food assistance was undertaken to estimate the extent and nutritional significance of at-home food preparation activity for these women. At-home food preparation was estimated from women's reported food intakes from three 24-hour recalls. The relationships between food preparation and energy and nutrient intake, food intake, and 30-day household food security status were characterized. Almost all participants (97%) consumed foods prepared from scratch at least once during the three days of observation; 57% did so each day. Both the frequency and complexity of at-home food preparation were positively related to women's energy and nutrient intakes and their consumption of fruits and vegetables, grain products, and meat and alternates. The intakes by women in households with food insecurity with hunger reflected less complex food preparation but no less preparation from scratch than women in households where hunger was not evident, raising questions about the extent to which food skills can protect very poor families from food insecurity and hunger. Our findings indicate the need for nutrition professionals to become effective advocates for policy reforms to lessen economic constraints on poor households.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Diet self-selection and food hoarding after food deprivation by Siberian hamsters.

Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus) increase food hoarding, but not food intake, after a fast. Because the physiological mechanisms underlying these changes in food hoarding are virtually unknown, we sought insight into these mechanisms by allowing hamsters to self-select their diet from food sources varying in macronutrient composition and caloric density ("dietary wisdom"). Therefore, the effects of food deprivation length on diet self-selection were tested in adult female hamsters after adaptation to three composite diets: sunflower seeds (SS), pellet chow (PC), and rabbit chow (RC). One group initially was fasted for 32 h, the other for 56 h, and then each was refed. The remaining nonexperienced fast was instated after prefast body mass, food intake, and hoarding were recovered. Food hoarding, but not food intake, was increased regardless of fast length or sequence; moreover, the largest increase in food hoarding was on the first day of refeeding and was primarily reflected as increased SS hoarding. When the longer fast occurred first body mass loss was greater and the increased food hoard size was maintained for more days than when the longer fast came second. The order of food intake and hoarding preferences was not changed after a fast (SS > PC > RC), but the degree of food hoarding preference for SS was exaggerated. Collectively, these results support the notion that food hoarding increases with decreases in lipid stores, and show that when internal lipid stores are decreased, external lipid stores are preferentially increased.

Animals↗