Initial Hunger Research Articles

Subjective Lowering of Preprandial Blood Glucose and Cancer Prevention by Planning and Recognizing Initial Hunger

We recently described the training of the passage from scheduled to demanded meals in infants and adults. Subjects reduced energy intake by subjectively abolishing conditioned meals and by allowing intake only after demand by the infant or after hunger perception by the adult (Initial Hunger Meal Pattern; IHMP). Conditioned meals were those scheduled and/or presented to the infant as well to the adult by sight, smell, mentioning, gesturing or simply at a fixed mealtime. During IHMP instead, meals were suspended until the first infant’s demand or until an adult’s self-noticing arousal of hunger. IHMP was checked by measuring blood glucose before three meals per day (MBG) and was associated with significant decreases in diary-reported energy-intake, MBG, glycated hemoglobin, body weight, insulin AUC in glucose tolerance tests and in days with diarrhea as compared to randomized control subjects who maintained conditioned meals. Although generalized, conditioned eating is a modern aberration that is associated with development of insulin resistance and overall inflammation. These associations are well demonstrated independently from the implicated mechanism. A state of Overall Subclinical Inflammation greatly increases cell and DNA replications and replication errors. After decades of DNA errors, oncogenic cells arise and cumulate. A prevention of malignancies is possible by interrupting the development of conditioned eating, insulin resistance and associated overall inflammation.

Severe Malnutrition, Radiation Enteritis and Insulin Resistance: A Solution by Initial Hunger and Associated Low Blood Glucose

Severe Malnutrition, Radiation Enteritis and Insulin Resistance: A Solution by Initial Hunger and Associated Low Blood Glucose

Initial Hunger Meal Pattern and 20% Reduction in Energy Intake

At meals, people aim to maintain their usual energy level and balance in blood and all tissues. People have subjectively refined this aim through poorly conscious months and years, i.e., outside any comparison with other people, other times or feeding conditions. The preprandial weekly mean blood glucose can assess this individual aim that differs from other people in the general fattening/ diabetes development. The evaluation of this pathogenic development in the overall stratification shows how unhealthy is the subject’s energy imbalance. After 2 - 48 hours of meal suspension, the aim arises as Initial Hunger. This Initial Hunger serves as reference sensation in the assessment of current energy availability. Recognition of three Initial Hunger arousals per day produces an even energy balance and eliminates any conditioned intake. This meal pattern seemed a useful chance to reverse current trends in overweight increase. Two reliable authorities (National Institute of Health and New England Journal of Medicine) noticed that already, all dieticians instructed to wait for hunger arousal before meals to limit energy intake for body weight loss. Dieticians’ definition and instructions on hunger for body weight loss miss any distinction from conditioned energy intake and are ineffective. Present report shows the need for improving awareness on hunger.

The Individual Meal Pattern

in Mean BG but significantly different from all other strata. We might say that each subject is imprisoned in his/her own stratum and maintains a steady meal pattern to maintain a steady BG. Figure 1 shows Mean BGs in increasing sequence: The high Mean BGs are associated with insulin resistance. These assessments on Mean BG were taken before any training on Initial Hunger (IH) and again after 5 months from training. I was criticized by ASN for assessments based on portable devices. Portable devices are unreliable. When I started my long research, I considered single BG measurements as inconsistent and the BG wavering destitute any meaning to the measurements. The liver delivers glucose into blood every 12 minutes. Physical activity, a gram of sugar, a heavy concern, all increase BG. We do not know the onset of the post-absorptive period, that also declines lowly, slowly. I retained that we could better rely on the mean of many measurements during a period. Single measurements were incorporated in collective, weekly assessments (Mean BG). At recruitment, the BG means of 120 investigated subjects showed SDs of 5 to 10 mg/dL that corresponded to confidence limits of 3.84 mg/dL at P < 0.05. We could stratify the 120 subjects in ten small strata. Each stratum contained subjects without differences

Recovery of Hunger Sensations Associated with Low Preprandial Blood Glucose: An Easy Exit from Diabetes?

Background: Obesity, diabetes, asthma, autism, birth defects, dyslexia, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and schizophrenia have increased in children in the last half century. These increases may depend on the widespread, well known error in energy balance: the unremitting addition of fat at any will (decision) to eat. In most (60%) but not all people, the decision arises as conditioned before energy exhaustion of the energy available from previous meals. After meal suspension for few hours (up to 48 hours), healthy subjects identified the arousal of sensations of hunger that we named Initial Hunger (IH). After this identification, subjects distinguished IH from conditioned sensations before subsequent meals by mental comparison of the current arousal with the remembered IH. BG decreased to 76.6 ± 3.7 mg/dL and hunger sensations (Initial hunger, IH) arose spontaneously and corresponded to the complete exhaustion of the previous meals. Objective: Not Insulin Dependent (NID) diabetic people differ from fattening people in this: after meal suspension, they do not develop any hunger sensation nor the associated low blood glucose (BG). Methods: Meal suspension lets IH arise and after no arousal, reduction of energy intake. The two subjects consumed meals that provided at least 20 grams of animal protein and up to one kg of not-starchy vegetable (NSV) for 6 to 12 months. At reappearance of IH, we implemented an Initial Hunger Meal Pattern (IHMP). Results: We tried to implement IHMP training in two obese (BMI of 39 and 33) adults out of two consecutive recruitments of subjects who showed high fasting BG. We found an absence of BG decline to 76.6 ± 3.7 mg/dL and an absence of any hunger sensation after eating suspension. Both subjects lost 13% - 20% of their body weight and recovered 76.6 ± 3.7 mg/dL of BG and hunger sensations, i.e., went off diabetes. IHMP maintained the decreased body weight in the subsequent months. Conclusion: Diabetes develops for inveterate conditioned intake (when previous energy intake has not been fully exhausted before meals), excessive fattening (with presumed excessive post-absorption emission of fatty acids from fatty tissues), permanent loss of BG decline to 76.6 ± 3.7 mg/dL and permanent loss of physiological signals of hunger. A healthy, non-diabetic life may be recovered by painless loss of weight up to 20%. The body weight remained stable by implementing IHMP at reappearance of hunger sensations. This costs accurate energy intake planning instead of hunger endurance.

Learning the recognition of Initial Hunger (IH)

Learning the recognition of Initial Hunger (IH)

Food Offer, Chronic Diarrhea and Preparedness to Alimentary Diabetes from the Second Year of Life Onwards

&lt;p class="Standard"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background: &lt;/strong&gt;We have worked out an alimentary behaviour based on a meal- after -meal individual limit of energy intake (IHMP). We have then studied the energy intake, the pre-prandial blood glucose concentration (blood glucose, BG) and the body weight of a group of children with chronic not specific diarrhea. Finally we have added BG tolerance tests to clinically healthy adults in order to ascertain a possible association between IHMP and insulin sensitivity, should functional disorders or overweight problems arise.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="Standard"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Objective:&lt;/strong&gt; With the present study we want to verify if mothers are capable of maintaining the IHMP and low pre-prandial BG levels in the eight years following the initial training, also in absence of diarrhea relapses. In adults the IHMP is associated to a good insulin sensitivity and this fact should be taken into consideration in order to reduce the increase of non - trasmissible deseases in the Western World.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="Standard"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Methods:&lt;/strong&gt; We recruited children with not specific chronic diarrhea (bowel functional disorders) and selected randomly 53 mother-child pairs as the control group and 100 to be trained. Mothers were taught both how to recognise the correspondence between the individual manifestations of hunger and the BG concentration (Initial Hunger Meal Pattern, IHMP). The aim was to get low BG levels before each meal, and, thanks to the skill acquired, to stop the insulin resistance. The energy intake and the pre-prandial BG levels were reported in weekly diaries while the symptoms were recorded through structured interviews after 3 and 6 months and after 2,4,6,8 years.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="Standard"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results: &lt;/strong&gt;Energy intake reductions were significantly larger in trained than in control subjects at all 6 surveys after recruitment (P &amp;lt; 0.04 to &amp;lt; 0.0001) although growth was similar, Diarrhea and vomiting significantly dropped both in the trained group and in the control one compared to the beginning of the research. Larger reductions from base values in days with diarrhea in trained children (compared with controls) were found for the three initial months and in drug administration at the surveys after 2 years and after 8 years&lt;/p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion: &lt;/strong&gt;Chronic non-specific diarrhea of the second year of life is associated&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;with high energy intake&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;and high pre-prandial BG for incomplete exhaustion of previous energy intake. In adults, this habit is associated with fattening/insulin resistance.

Health behaviours and their facilitation under depletion conditions: The case of snacking

Introduction: Previous research suggests that depletion (the state ensuing from self-control exertion) engenders lapses in health behaviours. The present study tested for that effect in relation to the health behaviour of limiting snacking, and investigated whether health goal-priming might facilitate such health behaviours even under depletion conditions. Method: A laboratory study was conducted involving an analytic sample of 85 undergraduates (mean age = 20.08, SD = 3.96; female: n = 63). Depletion was manipulated by having participants watch a humorous video while suppressing their responses (depletion condition) or remaining natural (non-depletion condition). The activation of participants' health goals was then manipulated by subtly exposing (goal-priming condition) or not exposing (non-priming condition) participants to health-related words in a Scrambled Sentence Task. Finally, snacking was measured using a bogus taste-test. Results and discussion: Controlling for initial hunger, snacking was higher among depleted compared to non-depleted participants. Snacking was lower among primed compared to non-primed participants. The interaction between depletion and goal-priming was not significant. These findings suggest that depletion should be recognised as a risk factor for lapses in health behaviours, and that health goal-priming may be a useful technique for facilitating such behaviours even when individuals are depleted.

Conditioned Intake and Fattening/Diabetes

Background: Obesity, diabetes, asthma, autism, birth defects, dyslexia, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, and schizophrenia have increased in children in the last half century. The will (decision) to eat develops often when previous energy intake has been incompletely exhausted. Objective: The will to eat develops after stimuli (often external) that do not correlate with energy availability in blood. Training a relation between hunger sensations (Initial Hunger, IH) and Blood Glucose (BG) as an index of energy availability allows an IH Meal Pattern that is associated with low mean BG and insulin sensitivity. Lack of any relation between the will to eat and the energy availability is a widespread error that may be responsible of health deterioration in children as well as in adults. Methods: After meal suspension and with synchronous blood glucose (BG) measurements, we taught patients to distinguish hunger sensations that are conditioned from those that arise after meal suspension (Initial Hunger, IH). This hunger (after meal suspension) signals a complete exhaustion of previous intake and is appropriate for meal onset to obtain meal-by-meal fasting nutrient levels and low BG prior to the next meal and establish an even balance. This pattern has been termed the Initial Hunger Meal Pattern (IHMP). Results: In contrast with untrained control subjects, trained subjects accurately recognized IH by synchronous BG measurements. We report here the identification of Initial Hunger (the subjective limit), the daily adjustments to three arousals for weeks and months, the diffusion of the error in untrained child and adult population, the validations of the IH and BG assessments and the improvements of 18 parameters by IHMP. Conclusion: The will to eat develops as a conditioned event and this conditioned will causes positive energy imbalance and insulin resistance/fattening. The imbalancing will to eat may be corrected by becoming aware of differences between the conditioned sensations of hunger and the sensations that develop after meal suspension.

"Initial Hunger" for All? A Study on Undernourished Infants

Aim: A meal/satiety pattern dictated by the rhythmic arousal of Initial Hunger (IH and IHMP) is used by overweight people to decrease body weight. We however conceived IHMP to improve intestinal absorption and diminish immune involvement in intestinal mucosa as well as throughout the body (overall subclinical inflammation). The purpose of IHMP may be shown by its early employment in undernourished infants. Methods: Nine malnourished infants (weight per age lower than 70%) with diarrhea in the first 15 months of age were investigated in a controlled, randomized study. Organic diseases were excluded by conventional procedures, including intestinal biopsy. Six infants were assigned to the intervention and 3 to the control group. Compliance, intake, and anthropometry were recorded in hospital for 2 months, and then by frequent visiting and 7-day home diary under intervention for 5 total times in two years. Results: Six subjects under intervention and three controls were followed for at least 2 years. Energy intake decreased from 126±21 kcal/kg/d to 85±6 kcal/kg/d in treated infants and from 111±53 kcal/kg/d to 107±37 kcal/kg/d in the first 2 months of study (P<0.01 on longitudinal differences). Days with vomiting became null after 2 months of treatment, whereas in control subjects, 4 or 5 events every 60 days persisted for all follow-ups. Further longitudinal differences were significant on days with diarrhea after three months, and on plasma triglycerides at the two sampled times during treatment. The difference in the Chi square for trend was significant on energy intake and in the numbers of days with vomiting or diarrhea (P<0.002). Serum triglycerides decreased from 148±27 mg/dL to 70±10 mg/dL under intervention, and increased from 119±47 mg/dl to 139±59mg/dl in controls (P<0.002 on the difference). Values after two years of follow-ups were respectively: 73.2 ± 12.3 mg/dL and 89 ± 37 mg/dL (P<0.05). Toward the end of the study, anthropometric measurements increased per age from recruitment in treated infants with differences from control subjects that were not significant in the longitudinal comparisons between groups. Weight per age reached 88.8±8.7% under intervention, and 79.7±10.2% in controls after two years (not significant). Psychomotor development was normal except for one control infant. Conclusion: High triglycerides (and associated insulin resistance with an overall subclinical inflammation) are involved in the persistence of diarrhea and on malnutrition in these undernourished infants as in the development of functional bowel disorders and over weight in adults. IHMP was an actual solution also for malnourished infants.

New Findings on Energy Balance and Established Wisdom

Background. Energy balance in blood and body may differ for a day or two although compensating in a month. Most people (60%) maintain a positive energy balance and a high blood glucose (BG) high energy availability in blood and high resting metabolic rate that correspond to insulin resistance/fattening and ill health. A meal/satiety pattern dictated by the rhythmic arousal of Initial Hunger (IH and IHMP) improved exhaustion of the energy consumed in previous meals and decreased high energy intake, high preprandial BG, high resting metabolic rate (RMR), insulin resistance, overall subclinical inflammation, vascular risks, deteriorations and functional disorders. Methods. We defined Initial Hunger as sensations that spontaneously arise after eating suspension. IH consistently arouse in different groups when BG declined toward 76.6 ± 3.7 mg/dL. A week diary reported assessments of IH and preprandial BG measurements before the three main meals. Mean BG in a week was stratified within normal BG limits, but different subjects pertained to different strata. Thirty-one untrained control adults maintained his/her own mean and BG stratum for five months. After training, these subjects changed his/her own mean BG to the stratum that was associated with IHMP. Measurements reported by diary, of RMR and of total energy expenditure demonstrated this stratum change. From recruitment, the mean decrease was 15.4% by indirect calorimetry and 15.5% by doubly labeled water in a total of 24 toddlers (P < 0.001). Mean BG thus assessed the deviation of a meal pattern from the mean BG associated with IH (IHMP). Results. In San Diego ASN 2014, we showed the effectiveness of IHMP on regression of fattening/insulin resistance for a long term in 181 adults of mixed body weight who had bowel functional disorders and were clinically normal. However we had earlier designed IHMP for a broader aim as compared to a body loss device. We wanted to educate children and future adults to an intestinal low immune involvement and to the best fitting of intake to body regulations. Thus, we tried to publish the recovery of diarrheic malnourished infants by IHMP in an American Society for Nutrition (ASN) Journal. Subjects were aged less than 15 months, had lower body weight per age than 70% and recovered through many months and years. This aim was right opposite to weight loss. The ASN Journal rejected the publication as findings of clinical but no nutritional interest. Med Crave promptly published the findings. In a broader thought, the ASN Journal protected the established assistance beliefs and trusts from the confounding intrusion of an innovative, self-help system (IHMP).

Hunger can be taught: Hunger Recognition regulates eating and improves energy balance

A set of spontaneous hunger sensations, Initial Hunger (IH), has been associated with low blood glucose concentration (BG). These sensations may arise pre-meal or can be elicited by delaying a meal. With self-measurement of BG, subjects can be trained to formally identify and remember these sensations (Hunger Recognition). Subjects can then be trained to ensure that IH is present pre-meal for most meals and that their pre-meal BG is therefore low consistently (IH Meal Pattern). IH includes the epigastric Empty Hollow Sensation (the most frequent and recognizable) as well as less specific sensations such as fatigue or light-headedness which is termed inanition. This report reviews the method for identifying IH and the effect of the IH Meal Pattern on energy balance. In adults, the IH Meal Pattern has been shown to significantly decrease energy intake by one-third, decrease preprandial BG, reduce glycosylated hemoglobin, and reduce insulin resistance and weight in those who are insulin resistant or overweight. Young children as well as adults can be trained in Hunger Recognition, giving them an elegant method for achieving energy balance without the stress of restraint-type dieting. The implications of improving insulin sensitivity through improved energy balance are as wide as improving immune activity.

The role of hedonic hunger in food-cue reactivity

It has been proposed that overweight individuals may be more sensitive to the food environment than others, eliciting appetite when not ‘homeostatically hungry’, termed ‘hedonic hunger’. Moreover, exposure to visual and olfactory food cues can promote increased desire for food. Therefore, the link between hedonic hunger, assessed using the Power of Food Scale (PFS) and food-cue reactivity was investigated based upon a well-established paradigm, but using a within-subjects design. We hypothesised that participants prone to hedonic hunger would report relatively enhanced appetite following the food cue, which would be comparatively resistant to initial hunger state. Sixty-two female students, aged 18–55 years, took part in a within-subject experiment, attending in counterbalanced satiated and food-deprived states, 2–3 days apart. Reactivity measures including craving and desired portion size for pizza were reported pre- and post-pizza cue exposure, together with completion of the PFS to measure ‘hedonic hunger’. In both motivational states, all appetite reactivity ratings increased post-exposure, with greater overall appetite, but not reactivity, in the food deprived condition. High PFS scorers exhibited greater appetite but not reactivity, and no interaction was found between hedonic hunger and motivational states. Thus, PFS variance was not explained by any increased reactivity in the fed condition, deemed to constitute non-homeostatic hunger elicited by the food environment. Findings did not support claims that the PFS measures non-homeostatic appetitive reactivity to the food environment. Instead, the PFS predicted greater appetite for food, irrespective of current hunger state or food cues.

Requested meals versus scheduled meals

Scheduled meals are considered to be equivalent to those requested by the infant (null hypothesis). In adults, we have found high blood glucose before scheduled meals and low blood glucose after recognition of validated initial hunger. Low preprandial blood glucose is associated with a decrease in energy intake and body weight both in adults who are overtly overweight and in those who are of normal weight with insulin resistance (hidden overweight). In this study, we investigated the validity of the null hypothesis between scheduled and requested meals in 2-year-old infants with chronic nonspecific diarrhea. We trained a "recognizing request" meal pattern in 70 mother-infant pairs. The trained meal pattern consisted of administering food after a first request that we validated by blood glucose measurement in the hospital laboratory. Using a 7-day food diary, mothers reported preprandial blood glucose measurements for their infants three times a day. We assessed mean preprandial blood glucose, daily energy intake, days with diarrhea, blood parameters, and anthropometry before training and 4 months after training, and compared the results with measurements in 73 randomly selected untrained controls. In the trained group, there was a decrease in mean blood glucose from 86.9 ± 9.4 mg/dL to 76.4 ± 6.7 mg/dL (P < 0.0001), as well as a decrease in energy intake and days with diarrhea in comparison with control infants who maintained scheduled meals. Only two of 21 infants who had a mean blood glucose lower than 81.2 mg/dL at recruitment showed a statistically significant decrease in mean blood glucose, whereas 36 of 49 infants above this cutoff level showed a statistically significant decrease after training (Chi-square test, P < 0.0001). Requested meals are associated with low preprandial blood glucose, significantly lower energy intake, and recovery from diarrhea, whereas scheduled meals are associated with high blood glucose, higher energy intake, and persistence of diarrhea. The disparities in blood glucose levels and energy intake disprove the null hypothesis, suggesting the need for a change from scheduled to requested meals early on in food administration, ie, during the neonatal period.

Eliciting Clear-Cut Initial-Hunger at Proper Time

Bringing up children to scheduled meals promotes current extent of overweight and insulin resistance. The spontaneous arousal of hunger sensations at low blood glucose concentration is different from scheduled arousal. Memorization of spontaneous arousals and reports of their identity in later occasions may be confirmed by biochemical, physiological and physical measurements stating the identity of metabolic conditions. This review reports this distinction and the identification by training of initial hunger (IH). Validated IH includes epigastric sensations (the most frequent and recognizable) and mental and physical sensations. A meal pattern solicited by validated IH may be maintained for months and years up to old age. This pattern reduces energy intake by a third, and decreases mean weekly preprandial BG, glycated Hb, insulin resistance and body weight in those who are insulin resistant or overweight.

Differences in maintenance of mean blood glucose (BG) and their association with response to "recognizing hunger".

Background:Meals begin and end subjectively. We trained healthy subjects to recognize initial hunger as a preprandial target for meal consumption, and to create a “recognizing hunger” or initial hunger meal pattern.Objective:Training subjects to “recognize hunger” lowers blood glucose (BG) and improves energy balance, and lowers metabolic risks and bodyweight. A minority may have low BG and low metabolic risks at recruitment, but the others may recover this favorable condition by training.Methods:In a 7-day food diary, subjects reported their preprandial BG measurements; BG and energy availability by blood were assessed at the lowest BG during the day, and diary-mean BG thus characterized the individual meal pattern (daily energy intake). We analyzed the same diaries of a recent paper on a global, randomized comparison of subjects trained in “recognizing hunger” with control subjects. This time, we checked whether subjects who had maintained low BG (LBG subgroup) at recruitment were able to decrease mean BG and metabolic risk factors during “hunger recognition” like those who presented high BG (HBG subgroup).Results:At recruitment, the BG means of 120 investigated subjects were within mean confidence limits of ± 3.84 mg/dL, and we could stratify subjects in ten small strata of which each significantly differed by mean BG. Mean BG was stable in each control subject over five months; the mean absolute change being 6.0 ± 4.6 mg/dL. Only three out of 34 trained subjects who had lower mean BG than 81.8 mg/dL significantly decreased mean BG, whereas 41 out of 55 subjects whose mean BG was greater than 81.8 mg/dL significantly decreased mean BG after training (P < 0.0001). At recruitment, the LBG subgroup showed significantly lower insulin, lower BG area under curve (AUC) in the oral glucose tolerance test (GTT), and lower HbA1c than the HBG group. After training, only HBG subjects, compared with HBG controls, significantly decreased preprandial BG from 91.6 ± 7.7 mg/dL to 81.0 ± 7.7 mg/dL, in association with a decrease of HbA1c from 4.81% ± 0.44% to 4.56% ± 0.47%, of GTT insulin AUC from 244 ± 138 mU/L to 164 ± 92 mU/L, and of energy intake from 1872 ± 655 kcal to 1251 ± 470 kcal (P < 0.001), with an increase of indices of insulin sensitivity from 5.9 ± 3.3 to 9.8 ± 5.6 and of beta cell function from 1.0 ± 0.7 to 1.4 ± 1.1 (P < 0.05). LBG subjects only decreased weekly-diary BG standard deviation in comparison with controls.Conclusion:At recruitment, the 120 subjects maintained mean BG at one personal level of ten possibilities, and 34 subjects were below 81.8 mg/dL (LBG) and 55 were over (HBG). The 55 HBG subjects showed higher mean insulin resistance, HbA1c, other cardiovascular risk factors, and increased bodyweight compared with the 34 LBG subjects. A total of 41 out of the 55 HBG subjects regressed to LBG with training.

Foraging byHippodamia convergens2for Cereal Aphids1on Wheat Plants in the Laboratory3

We investigated predation by adult convergent lady beetle, Hippodamia convergeas Guerin-Meneville, on the English grain aphid, Sitobion avenae L., on wheat, Triticum aestivum L., plants in a laboratory arena. A model relating beetle hunger to starvation time was developed and used to calculate initial hunger for beetles used in predation observations. Hunger level was significantly correlated with the time spent searching a wheat plant and the number of aphids eaten by both male and female convergent lady beetles during a plant visit. Time since contacting (either touching or eating) an aphid was slightly negatively correlated with time the lady beetle spent searching a plant. Time since contact also was slightly negatively related to the number of aphids eaten. The mean time required to eat an aphid increased with aphid instar as was expected because of the corresponding increase in size. Female convergent lady beetles took an average of 27.0 seconds to consume a first-instar English grain aphid, with time increasing to 141.2 seconds for an apterous adult. The mean proportion of English grain aphids leaving a plant in response to foraging by lady beetles increased with aphid instar from 0.09 for first instars to 0.49 for adult alatae. The proportion of aphids leaving a plant was significantly correlated with the time a lady beetle spent searching a plant. Although we observed increased residence time and increased time adult convergent lady beetles spent searching when aphids were abundant, the predation rate was independent of the number of aphids on a plant.

Sustained self-regulation of energy intake: initial hunger improves insulin sensitivity.

Background. Excessive energy intake has been implicated in diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, and obesity. Dietary restraint has been unsuccessful as a method for the self-regulation of eating. Recognition of initial hunger (IH) is easily learned, can be validated by associated blood glucose (BG) concentration, and may improve insulin sensitivity. Objective. To investigate whether the initial hunger meal pattern (IHMP) is associated with improved insulin sensitivity over a 5-month period. Methods. Subjects were trained to recognize and validate sensations of IH, then adjust food intake so that initial hunger was present pre-meal at each meal time (IHMP). The purpose was to provide meal-by-meal subjective feedback for self-regulation of food intake. In a randomised trial, we measured blood glucose and calculated insulin sensitivity in 89 trained adults and 31 not-trained controls, before training in the IHMP and 5 months after training. Results. In trained subjects, significant decreases were found in insulin sensitivity index, insulin and BG peaks, glycated haemoglobin, mean pre-meal BG, standard deviation of diary BG (BG as recorded by subjects' 7-day diary), energy intake, BMI, and body weight when compared to control subjects. Conclusion. The IHMP improved insulin sensitivity and other cardiovascular risk factors over a 5-month period.

Sustained self-regulation of energy intake. Loss of weight in overweight subjects. Maintenance of weight in normal-weight subjects

BackgroundDietary restraint is largely unsuccessful for controlling obesity. As an alternative, subjects can easily be trained to reliably recognize sensations of initial hunger (IH) a set of physiological sensations which emerge spontaneously, not necessarily at planned mealtimes, and may be the afferent arm of a homeostatic system of food intake regulation. Previously we have reported that IH is associated with blood glucose concentration (BG) below 81.8 mg/dL (4.55 mmol/l), (low blood glucose, LBG), and that a pattern of meals in which IH is present pre-meal (IHMP) improved insulin sensitivity, HbA1c and other cardiovascular risk factors. Here we report the effect upon weight in overweight and normal weight subjects.ObjectiveTo investigate whether the IHMP is associated with sustained loss of weight in overweight subjects over a 5 month period.MethodsSeventy four overweight subjects (OW: BMI > 25) and 107 normal weight (NW) subjects were randomly allocated to either trained (OW: N = 51; NW N = 79) or control (OW: N = 23; NW: N = 28) groups. All subjects were allocated post-randomization into either low or high mean pre-meal BG groups (LBG and HBG groups) using a demarcation point of 81.8 mg/dL.ResultsA significant longitudinal decrease was found in body weight (trained NW: -2.5 ± 4.6 kg; OW -6.7 ± 4.5 kg; controls: NW +3.5 ± 4.0 kg and OW -3.4 ± 4.0 kg; P = 0.006 and 0.029) and in energy intake, mean BG, standard deviation of diary BG (BG as recorded by subjects' 7-day diary), BMI, and arm and leg skin-fold thickness in (OW and NW) HBG subjects. OW LBG subjects significantly decreased body weight (trained: -4.0 ± 2.4 kg; controls: -0.4 ± 3.7 kg; P = 0.037). 26 NW LBG subjects showed no longitudinal difference after training as did 9 control subjects.ConclusionOver a 5 month period the IHMP resulted in significant loss of weight in OW subjects compared to controls practicing dietary restraint. NW subjects maintained weight overall, however NW HBG subjects also lost weight compared to controls.

Training to estimate blood glucose and to form associations with initial hunger

BackgroundThe will to eat is a decision associated with conditioned responses and with unconditioned body sensations that reflect changes in metabolic biomarkers. Here, we investigate whether this decision can be delayed until blood glucose is allowed to fall to low levels, when presumably feeding behavior is mostly unconditioned. Following such an eating pattern might avoid some of the metabolic risk factors that are associated with high glycemia.ResultsIn this 7-week study, patients were trained to estimate their blood glucose at meal times by associating feelings of hunger with glycemic levels determined by standard blood glucose monitors and to eat only when glycemia was < 85 mg/dL. At the end of the 7-week training period, estimated and measured glycemic values were found to be linearly correlated in the trained group (r = 0.82; p = 0.0001) but not in the control (untrained) group (r = 0.10; p = 0.40). Fewer subjects in the trained group were hungry than those in the control group (p = 0.001). The 18 hungry subjects of the trained group had significantly lower glucose levels (80.1 ± 6.3 mg/dL) than the 42 hungry control subjects (89.2 ± 10.2 mg/dL; p = 0.01). Moreover, the trained hungry subjects estimated their glycemia (78.1 ± 6.7 mg/dL; estimation error: 3.2 ± 2.4% of the measured glycemia) more accurately than the control hungry subjects (75.9 ± 9.8 mg/dL; estimation error: 16.7 ± 11.0%; p = 0.0001). Also the estimation error of the entire trained group (4.7 ± 3.6%) was significantly lower than that of the control group (17.1 ± 11.5%; p = 0.0001). A value of glycemia at initial feelings of hunger was provisionally identified as 87 mg/dL. Below this level, estimation showed lower error in both trained (p = 0.04) and control subjects (p = 0.001).ConclusionSubjects could be trained to accurately estimate their blood glucose and to recognize their sensations of initial hunger at low glucose concentrations. These results suggest that it is possible to make a behavioral distinction between unconditioned and conditioned hunger, and to achieve a cognitive will to eat by training.