Do we tend to eat a specified amount of food daily?

[moonlight]

Hi Jeff,

I think I've read somewhere on your site about how we tend to eat a certain amount of food daily but I can't find it. I think you were referring to pounds of food daily. How to search for such a question?!?

Do you have any idea what I might be referring to? Thanks!

[JeffN]

Studies have shown that we tend to eat a similar amount of food each day by weight. The estimated range is around 3-5 lbs a day but can have a wider variance.

Here is some of the supporting data

This is a great overview from the CDC

https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/nutrit ... ensity.pdf

In a study by Bell et al., normal weight women were pro- vided with all of their meals over 2 days on three different occasions. On each occasion, the meals were modi ed by varying the amounts of vegetables offered (1) so that the 2-day diets differed in energy density. Although the par- ticipants could eat as much or as little as they liked, they ate similar amounts of food by weight during the 2 days. Consequently, reducing the energy density of the diet by adding extra vegetables led to a reduction in energy intake. Despite the reduced calorie intake, participants rated them- selves equally full and satis ed.

In another study, Duncan and colleagues found that providing people with a reduced-fat diet that contained substantial amounts of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans over 5 days led to the participants consuming fewer calories than when they were provided with a diet containing large amounts of high-fat meats and desserts (2). Again, the participants consumed comparable weights of food during each 5-day session, and they reported that each diet satis ed their hunger similarly. In a study lasting 3 weeks, Shintani et al. provided participants with a tradi- tional Hawaiian diet that was rich in fruits and vegetables (3, 4). This diet was substantially lower in energy density than the participants’ habitual diet. Participants consumed a similar weight of food with both diets, which led to a reduction of their daily energy intake on the low-energy- dense traditional diet. Despite the reduced energy intake, which was suf cient to lead to weight loss during the 3 weeks, the subjects reported the diet to be moderately to highly satiating.

These (1-4) and other studies (5-8) indicate that over the course of a few days, the weight of food a person con- sumes is fairly consistent and is more consistent than energy intake. Therefore, encouraging people to eat more foods low in energy density and to substitute these foods for those higher in energy density helps them decrease their caloric intake while eating satisfying portions of food and controlling hunger.

1.Bell EA, Castellanos VH, Pelkman CL, Thorwart ML, Rolls BJ. En- ergy density of foods affects energy intake in normal-weight women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1998;67:412-420.

2.Duncan KH, Bacon JA, Weinsier RL. The effects of high and low energy density diets on satiety, energy intake, and eating time of obese and nonobese subjects. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1983;37:763-767.

3.Shintani TT, Beckham S, Brown AC, O’Connor HK. The Hawaii Diet: ad libitum high carbohydrate, low fat multi-cultural diet for the reduc- tion of chronic disease risk factors: obesity, hypertension, hypercholes- terolemia, and hyperglycemia. Hawaii Medical Journal 2001;60:69-73.

4.Shintani TT, Hughes CK, Beckham S, O’Connor HK. Obesity and cardiovascular risk intervention through the ad libitum feeding of traditional Hawaiian diet. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1991;53:1647S-1651S.

5.Lissner L, Levitsky DA, Strupp BJ, Kalkwarf HJ, Roe DA. Dietary fat and the regulation of energy intake in human subjects. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1987;46:886-892.

6.Kendall A, Levitsky DA, Strupp BJ, Lissner L. Weight loss on a low- fat diet: consequence of the imprecision of the control of food intake in humans. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1991;53:1124-1129.

7.Rolls BJ, Shide DJ. Dietary fat and the control of food intake. In: Fernstrom JD, Miller GD, eds. Appetite and Body Weight Regulation: Sugar, Fat, and Macronutrient Substitutes. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, Inc., 1994:167-177.

8.Rolls BJ, Bell EA, Castellanos VH, Chow M, Pelkman CL, Thorwart ML. Energy density but not fat content of foods affected energy intake in lean and obese women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1999;69:863-871.

I think Dr Rolls work is some of the most important out there and have been incorporating it for years, starting long before my time with Pritikin, where we also incorporated it and wrote our own book on the topic which came out soon after hers

http://www.amazon.com/The-Pritikin-Prin ... 0737016167

I had Dr Rolls come to Pritikin a few times to lecture on the topic.

My experience, both personal and professional is about 3-5 lbs a day.

Here is the reference and charts from B Rolls and also another one both of which are in my Calorie Density presentation. You will often hear about 2.5 to 5 and most often around 3.5 to 4.5 but it all depends on the individual. You and I may differ but your food weight will remains fairly consistent as will mine.

Figure 1
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/67/3/ ... l.pdf+html

Figure 1
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/62/2/ ... l.pdf+html

Here are a few more you may find of value. A few of them touch on the weight of food we consume per day

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 840900122X

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/85/6/1465.long

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/85/5/1212.long

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/88/6/1459.full

http://www.andjrnl.org/article/S0002-8223(06)00889-3/fulltext

In Health
Jeff