The Role of Food Viscosity in Calorie Intake Regulation

描述（由申请人提供）：摄入量的调节涉及多种相互作用的行为和生理控制机制。一种或多种控制机制的故障被认为是食物摄入和体重调节紊乱模式的基础，例如与肥胖或厌食症相关的模式。食物中可能在维持能量平衡中起作用的一种特性是粘度，它被定义为物质流动的阻力。最近的报告表明，人类调节摄入量以补偿所消耗的卡路里的能力，至少部分取决于食物的粘度。食物粘度对摄入调节的潜在作用尚未在非人类动物模型中进行系统研究。本研究的目的是利用大鼠食欲和圆满行为模型提供的控制来开始这项研究。我们的研究将评估给大鼠喂食热量和营养成分相同，但粘度不同的食物的效果。研究将考察黏度差异对食物摄入和体重调节的短期和长期影响。此外，我们有充分的理由相信，人类母乳和大鼠母乳的黏度会随着时间的推移而变化，这与母乳的热量和常量营养素含量直接相关。这可能是粘度对这两个物种的摄入调节的影响，在生命的早期阶段以及成年期，取决于这种关系的暴露程度。因此，进一步的实验将检验幼鼠对饮食粘度差异的敏感性，以及这种敏感性开始影响食物摄入和体重调节的年龄。此外，我们将研究经验的影响，包括生命早期和成年后期，不同粘度和卡路里的食物对随后的摄入调节粘度的影响，并将研究粘度作为信号调节摄入的重要性（与其他感官信号如味觉相比）。最后，我们将探讨可能导致食物粘度差异对食物摄入调节能力产生差异的机制。考虑到过去20年来超重人数的迅速增加，仔细检查黏度在调节食物摄入和体重中的作用尤为重要。与此同时，软饮料、果汁和其他饮料的消费量也大幅增加，这些饮料热量高，但粘度低。我们的研究将为我们提供通过使用非人类受试者提供的更多控制，以便直接测试高热量，低粘度食物可能损害有效调节摄入量的能力的假设，从而可能导致最近肥胖和超重的趋势，包括儿童肥胖患病率的急剧增加。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The regulation of intake involves multiple types of interacting behavioral and physiological control mechanisms. Malfunctions in one or more of these control mechanisms are presumed to underlie disordered patterns of food intake and body weight regulation, such as those associated with obesity or anorexia. A property of food that may play a role in the maintenance of energy balance is viscosity, defined as the resistance of a substance to flow. Recent reports suggest that the ability of humans to adjust their intake to compensate for calories consumed depends, at least in part, on the viscosity of the food. The potential role of food viscosity on intake regulation has not been investigated systematically within a non-human animal model. The purpose of the proposed research is to use the control that is afforded by a rat model of appetitive and consummatory behavior to begin this investigation. Our research will assess the effects of feeding rats foods that are the same in terms of their caloric and nutritive content, but that differ in viscosity. Studies will examine both short-term and long-term effects of differences in viscosity on food intake and body weight regulation. Further, there is good reason to believe that the viscosity of human breast milk and rat milk varies over time in a manner that is directly correlated with the milk's caloric and macronutrient content. It may be that the influence of viscosity on intake regulation of both species, during the early stages of life as well as during adulthood, depends on exposure to this relationship. Thus, additional experiments will examine the sensitivity of young rats to differences in diet viscosity and the age at which such sensitivity begins to influence food intake and body weight regulation. Further, we will examine the effects of experience, both early in life and later in adulthood, with foods that differ in viscosity and calories on subsequent intake regulation by viscosity, and will examine the importance of viscosity as a signal-modulating intake (compared to other sensory signals like taste). Finally, we will explore the mechanisms that may contribute to ability of differences in the viscosity food to produce differences in the regulation of food intake. A careful examination of the role of viscosity in regulation of food intake and body weight is particularly critical given the rapid rise in overweight during the last 20 years. This rise has been accompanied by large increases in the consumption of soft drinks, fruit juices and other beverages, that are high calorie, but low viscosity. Our studies will provide us the increased control afforded by the use of non-human subjects in order to directly test the hypothesis that high calorie, low viscosity foods may compromise the ability to effectively regulate intake, and thereby may contribute to recent trends toward obesity and overweight, including dramatic increases in the prevalence of childhood obesity.