Model Of Food Consumption Research Articles

Assessing the Contribution of Attitudinal Variables in International Models of Food Consumption

This study compares the predictive ability of attitudinal variables with that of demographic variables in an international context. Using hierarchical regression analysis, the contribution of attitudinal variables to five models of food purchase behavior in urban China is evaluated. The results of the study indicate that, in some circumstances, multinational firms might opt to omit attitudinal measures in international consumer studies. Analysis of variance techniques are then used to examine the relationship between key demographic variables and food purchase behaviors.

Test of a food consumption model for the Atlantic cod

Test of a food consumption model for the Atlantic cod

Gastric Evacuation Rates for Juvenile Largemouth Bass

Abstract In situ estimation of fish daily ration is being used increasingly to test hypotheses related to competition, predation, and anthropogenic effects on fish populations. There is also an increasing demand for robust estimators of fish gastric evacuation rate for use in food consumption models. We selected the largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides for study of gastric evacuation rates (GERs) because (1) it is important in the trophic dynamics of warmwater ecosystems, and (2) a limited data base describing largemouth bass GERs has precluded development of a robust estimator needed for in situ estimates of prey consumption by populations of this species. We estimated GERs for juvenile largemouth bass (82–157 mm total length; 15–70 g wet weight) fed single meals (2% of dry body weight) of live fathead minnows Pimephales promelas at 26°C. A previously unused reciprocal model gave substantially more accurate estimates of largemouth bass GERs than other models. Also, the relationship we observed between l...

Recent developments for making gastric evacuation and daily ration determinations

Gastric evacuation rate estimates often suffer from an important bias caused by fitting experimentally-derived data distributions that are inherently constricted by the X-axis (Y = 0). Monte Carlo simulations were used to evaluate the bias. Truncating constricted distributions prior to curve fitting was suggested as a means to circumvent the problem. A food consumption model developed by D.S. Robson was presented. It employs the integral of the function fit to percentage gastric evacuation data, and does not require an a priori assumption of exponential gastric evacuation. The methods were illustrated using experimental gastric evacuation data and stomach contents data for fishery-caught yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares.

Bidirectional control of palatable food consumption through a common benzodiazepine receptor: Theory and evidence

A classical approach to the control of food consumption has been to assume separate mechanisms for the arousal to eat, on the one hand, and the satiation of feeding responses, on the other. The present paper is concerned with a single, and a comparatively simple, neuronal mechanism which is endowed with properties to allow the complete determination of the level of feeding, from hyperphagia to anorexia. The model for the control of feeding, which is presented here, draws attention to the benzodiazepine receptor found distributed through the brain, and present in certain hypothalamic nuclei. Recent evidence which characterizes the receptor is reviewed, and the various categories of benzodiazepine receptor ligands are described. Pharmacological data, collected in a palatable food consumption model using non-food-deprived rats, demonstrate that benzodiazepine receptor agonists produce hyperphagia, benzodiazepine receptor inverse agonists produce anorexia, and benzodiazepine receptor antagonists block both effects. Hence, bidirectional control of food intake can be achieved through differential ligand action at a common set of receptors. Speculatively, these data can be extended, if it is assumed that two endogenous ligands exist in the brain which act like benzodiazepine agonist and inverse agonist, respectively. Evidence for the presence in hypothalamic nuclei of endogenous ligands of the latter kind is discussed. Benzodiazepine withdrawal-induced anorexia is also described, and is taken as evidence for the part played by feeding mechanisms in the development of benzodiazepine physical dependence.

Evidence against the involvement of a noradrenergic mechanism in the release by diazepam of novelty-induced hypophagia in rats

The involvement of noradrenergic processes in both the behavioral suppression and release of food intake induced by diazepam, was investigated using the novlety-induced inhibition of food consumption model. Clonidine (7.5–60 μg/kg i.p.) and another α 2-noradrenergic receptor agonist, guanfacine (0.25–1 mg/kg i.p.), increased the food intake of rats placed in an unfamiliar situation. The effects of clonidine (15 μg/kg) were antagonized by yohimbine (0.5–2 mg/kg i.p.). Clonidine (7.5 μg/kg) was unable to enhance the efficacy of diazepam (0.5 and 1 mg/kg i.p.) in stimulating food consumption, whereas yohimbine (0.5–2 mg/kg) did not reduce and even increased the potency of diazepam (2 mg/kg) to facilitate food intake. These findings suggest that although noradrenergic processes (and in particular α 2-adrenoreceptors) are involved in the hyponeophagia model they do not mediate the releasing effect exerted by benzodiazepines on novelty-induced suppression of food intake.

Caloric value of food and coverage of the recommended nutritional intake of vitamins in the adult human. Principle foods containing vitamins

Two daily food consumption models were defined. One of them (I) is representative of the French eating habits, the other (E) of a diet with a theoretically balanced content of macronutrients for a caloric intake of 2,500 kcal. For each of these two models, four menus were calculated to obtain four caloric levels (1,500, 2,000, 2,500 and 3,000 kcal). The vitamin content of these menus was established on the basis of the literature (food composition tables). Nutritional losses resulting from usual cooking methods were taken into account. The results show that the dietary intake of some vitamins, such as folic acid, pantothenic acid, vitamin A, beta-carotene, vitamin C and B1, was likely to be inadequate and are in agreement with those of epidemiologic surveys carried out in developed countries. The threshold of 80% of the recommended allowances is not reached with a caloric level of 2,500 kcal (balanced diet) or 2,700 kcal (unbalanced diet). For an allowance of 1,500 kcal, most of the vitamins do not reach or just reach 50% of the recommended level. This result shows that the former eating habits of the French population, whose caloric intake was high (more than 3,000 kcal), were correct as they covered the recommended intakes of micronutrients. This work corroborates the great importance of some food groups in covering the recommended vitamin intakes and underlines the necessity of diversifying food.

Orally administered THIP inhibits food intake in the rat

A model of food consumption in the Sprague—Dawley rat is used to determine the anorexigenic effect of oral administration of the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) analog THIP in a dose range 0.1–20 mg/kg. THIP produces a dose-dependent decrease in food consumption in this model, with an ED 50 ⋍ 3 mg/kg. This action of THIP was antagonized by prior subcutaneous injection of bicuculline. These results provide further evidence that central GABA-ergic systems play a role in regulating food intake.

Use of a food consumption model to estimate human contaminant intake

A mathematical model is proposed for estimating daily contaminant intake by multiplying three variables related to consumption, from three independent consumption surveys. With lead as an example, the product of the three variables typified the mean and increasing intakes among infants 0-5 months, children 6-23 months and children 2-5 yr of age. Limitations implicit to the approach and the variables were discussed. Daily mean lead intake increased between the three respective age groups, 15, 59, and 82 μg lead. When intake was expressed on a body weight basis (μg lead/kg BW), the rate of daily lead exposure for children 6 to 23 months (6.1) and 2 to 5 yr (5.6) of age was similar but both were higher than the rate for the 0-5 month infant (2.7 μg kg(-1) BW). The 90th percentile daily dietary lead intake for 0-5 month infants was double their mean intake and for children 6 months to 5 yr was one and a half times their corresponding mean intakes. Food sources which contributed to the daily lead intake of the infant differed from those for the two groups of older children.

Economie agro-alimentaire

The economics of agri-business - The last number of Economie Rurale raises certain questions concerning the economics of agri-business and its methods. This new, developing subject differs from farm economics more particularly in its field of study. It considers all the functional and socio-economic sub-sectors that contribute to the satisfaction of nutritional needs in a given society. It analyses the food consumption model and the underlying production model. In Western economics the added value from agri-business tends to equal the added value from farming. Thi equality indicates the stage reached by agri-business. Agri-business economics are not analysed in the same way as farms economics. The industrialization and capitalization processes of the agri-business economy, closely connected with modifications in the social conditions of consumption in Western economics, become fundamental as do the resulting modifications down the agribusiness chain. The agri-business products market is very different from that of farm products and the « monopolistic competition » model explains the food economy market much better than the traditional model of imperfect competition.