Chapter Eighteen FATTENING DIETS Flashcards
What does the appropriation of food depend on?
The character of the food, ease of absorption, extrinsic and intrinsic influences such as heredity, age, sexual and psychical habits, exercise, sleep, and personal metabolic processes.
These factors influence how food is metabolized and utilized in the body.
Who were John Hanning Speke and Richard Burton?
Explorers who set off through West Africa in 1857 to search for the source of the Nile River.
Their expedition is notable for the discovery of the Nile’s origin and Speke’s observations of local customs.
What unusual custom did Speke observe among the Abyssinian nobility?
They fattened their wives to the extent that they could not stand upright.
Speke documented this during his travels in Africa.
What was the result of John Garrow’s attempt to increase his calorie intake?
He gained fifteen pounds in sixty days but lost the weight in fifty days after stopping the experiment.
Garrow struggled to maintain a high-calorie diet and concluded it would be difficult for obese individuals as well.
What foods were used by the Massa tribe to induce fattening?
Milk and porridge made from sorghum.
These foods were part of a ritual for fattening men in the tribe.
How many calories did a Massa tribesman reportedly consume during a fattening ritual?
Ten thousand calories a day.
This was part of a ceremonial binge aimed at significant weight gain.
What is the average daily calorie intake of the upper group of sumo wrestlers?
Five thousand five hundred calories worth of chanko nabe.
This diet is characterized by a high carbohydrate content.
What constitutes a typical sumo wrestler’s diet composition?
- 780 grams carbohydrates
- 100 grams fat
- 365 grams protein
This diet is significantly higher in calories and protein compared to a typical Japanese diet.
True or False: The lower group of sumo wrestlers has a similar body composition to the upper group.
False
The lower group is significantly fatter and less muscular despite similar weights.
What has been the prevailing belief among public-health authorities regarding dietary fat and obesity?
Dietary fat, not carbohydrates, is the primary cause of obesity.
This belief has influenced dietary recommendations for weight loss and heart disease prevention.
What evidence is often cited to support the idea that dietary fat leads to obesity?
Association of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.
However, this evidence has been challenged as lacking a direct link.
What did laboratory experiments with rats show regarding high-fat diets?
Some strains of rats become obese on high-fat diets, but many do not.
The results vary based on the strain of rat and dietary composition.
Fill in the blank: The average fat content in rat chow is _______.
2–6 percent fat calories.
This is significantly lower than the fat content that induces obesity in laboratory settings.
What did Edward Adolph’s experiments suggest about how rats adjust their intake?
Rats adjust their intake based on caloric content, not volume or taste.
This finding may also apply to human eating behaviors.
What is the ‘metabolic cost’ of storing calories according to J. P. Flatt?
7 percent for fat and 28 percent for carbohydrates.
This suggests that high-fat diets may lead to more efficient fat storage.
What did Sims and Danforth conclude about the relationship between carbohydrate-rich diets and insulin?
Chronically elevated levels of insulin could be caused by carbohydrate-rich diets.
This conclusion evolved over time as their research progressed.
True or False: According to Danforth, overindulgence in carbohydrates is less fattening than overindulgence in fat.
True
Danforth advocated for a focus on reducing both caloric and fat intake.
What did Danforth recommend for those destined to overeat?
Overindulgence in carbohydrate rather than fat should be recommended
Danforth wrote this in 1985, considering the tendency toward overnutrition in affluent societies.
What did Danforth emphasize should be reduced in affluent societies?
Both caloric and fat intake
This recommendation was made in light of overnutrition trends.
What was the Vermont investigators’ observation regarding nutrient composition and calorie consumption?
The nutrient composition of the diet seemed to affect the desire to consume calories to excess
This was a factor that the Vermont investigators did not fully take into account.
What did Sims and his colleagues notice about high-fat, high-protein diets?
It seemed impossible to fatten up their subjects on such diets
Subjects refused to eat enough meat to meet excess calorie requirements.
What did Danforth compare the experimental regimen to?
The diet prescribed by Robert Atkins in his 1973 diet book
Danforth noted that it is difficult to gain weight on the Atkins diet.
What challenge did Sims and his colleagues face in their studies?
The difficult assignment of gaining weight by increasing only the fat
This was discussed in their numerous publications.
What caloric excesses did subjects experience on a mixed diet?
As much as ten thousand calories a day
This was noted in Sims and his colleagues’ studies.
What did Sims and his colleagues fail to consider about hunger on different diets?
They did not wonder why appetite would decrease on a high-fat diet but increase on a mixed diet
This led to their observations of marked anorexia and late-day hunger.
How did the perception of obesity differ among researchers?
They perceived obesity as an eating disorder rather than a physiological issue
This affected their understanding of hunger and satiety.
What analogy did the text use regarding uncontrolled diabetes?
If diabetologists perceived ravenous hunger as a behavioral disorder, it would lead to ineffective treatments
This analogy highlights the misunderstanding of hunger’s physiological basis.
What fundamental question was raised about the effects of diet composition?
What happens when we eat a diet restricted in carbohydrates but not calories?
This question leads to inquiries about weight, hunger, and energy expenditure.
What was the mean diet for Japanese people according to a 1972 survey?
359 g of carbohydrate, 50.1 g of fat, 82.9 g of protein, and a total of 2,279 calories
This data was reported by Nishizawa et al.
What did the National Academy of Sciences note about obesity and dietary fat?
Obesity itself has not been found to be associated with dietary fat in either inter-or intra-population studies
This was noted in 1989.
Fill in the blank: According to Danforth, the bottom line is that you cannot gain weight on the _______ diet.
Atkins
This was a central claim made by Danforth.
