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Control of Feed Intake and the Fat Depots

Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02215

ABSTRACT

Energy balance appears to be regulated in many mammals so that growth rate is nearly constant in young animals, and body energy content is nearly constant in mature animals in many environmental and physiological conditions. The results of many experiments indicate that the fat depots, which are the major energy reserve, are maintained at about the same level and may be the basis of energy balance regulation. The control of meal size and frequency requires a hunger-satiety system which involves a composite signal from various receptors for metabolites, gastric function, etc. Factors for the latter system probably vary in the importance in their role with species, diet and environment. The hunger-satiety system and energy balance regulation are interrelated in the control of feeding. In the hypothalamus exists areas which generate a positive input for feeding (e.g., lateral areas) and a negative (or satiety) input for feeding (e.g., ventromedial areas) and which may function as a memory system for energy balance regulation. Many conditions (e.g., caloric dilution, heat stress, disease) can limit feeding and influence energy balance regulation. Most mammals have appropriate sensory cues which can stimulate feeding of often selective feedstuffs. In this review various aspects of the above components of the energy balance regulator are discussed and a scheme is presented to illustrate the many interrelationships.

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