Postabsorptively induced suppression of appetite and the energostatic control of feeding

The inhibition of feeding that follows intragastric administration of glucose had previously been shown to result in an ultimate net decrement in food intake which was equivalent in available energy to the amount of glucose loaded. Stomach loads of acetate, alanine, citrate, ethanol, glucose, glutamate, glycerol, lactate, oleate or valine (10 mmoles of each) were given in the present experiments. Food was withheld for 1 or 2 hr after gavage and then continuous access was restored. Relative to sodium chloride or urea loads, the metabolizable loads all inhibited feeding at some time in the subsequent few hr—in some cases at a time which followed complete absorption of the load. The net food intake decrement over 24 or 48 hr following gavage reliably correlated with the expected energy yield of the load. It is suggested that the primary metabolic control of food intake is an adjustment of the meal pattern which brings the current energy balance towards the null point.