Mammalian feeding occurs regularly and intermittently and despite a general lack of conscious nutritional knowledge on the part of the animal, usually appears to match energy intake (EI) and nutrient intakes with requirements. How is this achieved? The common explanation is that appetite, EI, or feeding behavior are regulated to ensure that physiological requirements are [...]

Appetite Regulation and Expression Traditionally it has been thought that appetite is influenced solely by body components or by metabolism. These influences are commonly referred to as the glucostatic, aminostatic, thermostatic, or lipostatic hypotheses. Each suggests that a single variable such as glucose, amino acids, heat generation, or adipose tissue stores plays the major role [...]

A predominantly plant-based diet reduces the risk of developing several chronic diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD) coronary heart disease and stroke. It is often assumed that antioxidants, including vitamin C, vitamin E, the carotenoids (e.g., /3-carotene, lycopene, and lutein), selenium, and the flavonoids (e.g., quercetin, kaempferol, myricetin, luteolin, and apigenin), contribute to this [...]

The study of temporal and geographical variation in disease prevalence in association with differences in environment, diet, and lifestyle helps identify possible factors that may modulate the risk of disease within and across populations. As such, observational epidemiology is a powerful, albeit blunt, tool that serves to inform and guide experimental studies and intervention trials. [...]

Oxygen is an essential nutrient for most organisms. Paradoxically, however, oxygen damages key biological sites. This has led to oxygen being referred to as a double-edged sword. The beneficial side of oxygen is that it permits energy-efficient catabolism of fuel by acting as the ultimate electron acceptor within mitochondria. During aerobic respiration, an oxygen atom [...]

A major distinction in diagnosis and classification of anemias is whether the eventual red cells that appear in the circulation are smaller (microcytic) or larger (macrocytic) than the usual normal cell size (normocytic). The most important example of the former is iron deficiency anemia where it appears that the red cell precursors, during their replication [...]

Anemia is defined by abnormally low circulating hemoglobin concentrations. A variety of etiologies exist for anemia, including dietary deficiencies of folate or vitamin B12 (pernicious or macrocytic anemia), infections and inflammatory states (anemia of chronic disease), and conditions that result in insufficient production of red blood cells (aplastic anemia) or excessive destruction of red blood [...]

Apart from being the building blocks of proteins, many amino acids are indispensable for certain vital functions or have specific functions of their own. They can function as neurotransmitters, as precursors for neurotransmitters and other important metabolites, including crucial oligo- and polypeptides, as a stimulus for hormonal release, and in inter-organ nitrogen transport and nitrogen [...]

Amino acids are generated within the body from three different sources. They enter the body from protein in the diet, and nonessential (dispensable) amino acids are synthesized from other metabolic intermediates, but by far the largest quantities of free amino acids arise from the breakdown of tissue proteins. Similarly, there are three metabolic fates for [...]

Chemistry and Classification Amino acids are a series of small organic molecules whose prime importance lies in the fact that they are the monomers from which proteins are made. The form and functions of proteins depend on the sequence in which the amino acids are joined together since each amino acid has specific chemical and [...]