Influence of periodicity of eating in the chicken

¹ U. S. Army Medical Research and Nutrition Laboratory, Fitzsimons General Hospital, Denver, Colorado

Male chickens were fed either ad libitum (nibblers) or allowed access to food for only 2 hr daily (meal eaters). The influence of these feeding regimens on body weight, body composition, plasma cholesterol, relative size of the digestive tract, and liver lipids was studied over a 14-week period. Body weight and percent body fat of meal-eating chicks were significantly lower throughout the study period. Plasma cholesterol levels were higher for meal-eating chicks at the 3- and 6-week sampling periods, but not after 10 and 14 weeks on the experimental regimens, suggesting that meal eating induces a transient hypercholesterolemia. Relative size of the digestive tract was increased in the meal-eating chicks. The rate of lipogenesis from acetate was higher in meal-eating chicks both in vivo and in vitro. In vivo fatty acid synthesis from glucose was also enhanced by meal feeding. The data presented suggest that the meal-eating chick and rat are metabolically similar.

Key Words: meal eating • nibbling • cholesterol • body composition • lipogenesis

Submitted on December 7, 1964