Do exogenous female sex hormones affect body weight and intake of sweet, fat and chocolate?

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1-1997

Abstract

To examine hormonal effects on body weight (BW) and caloric intake (CI) of carbohydrate (CHO), sweet (SW) and non-sweet (NSW), FAT, chocolate in a female model, Sprague-Dawley postbreeder (n=43) rats (10 mos., 10 litters of pups) were ovariectomized (OV) and implanted with 17 β estradiol (E) and/or progesterone (P), or placebo in three separate studies (phases) of 10 days each. Uterine weights (p>.0001) and radioimmunoassay of serum confirmed hormonal bioactivity. The sham (S) group with placebo implant was used for comparison. Estrogen decreased body weight gain (p<.0001) with no significant differences in caloric intake. Caloric conversion ratios (grams of body weight divided by caloric intake x 1000) were lower in E (p<.001). P consumed higher levels of FAT (p<.05) in Phase I. In Phase II, preferences for CHO (sweet [SW] AIN 76 and nonsweet [NSW] AIN 93), and FAT, were higher in OV (p<.007) with increase in body weight (p<.01). E consumed less SW and NSW than non estrogen treated animals. E&P consumed more SW than P or E separately (p<.003). In Phase III, four caloric levels of chocolate were consumed at 40% to 53% of the total caloric intake in OV animals with or without HRT with significantly higher CI (p<.001) when chocolate was a choice. The OV group which consumed the highest % calories from CHO and FAT gained the most BW (p<.05). S gained significantly less BW than OV. This indicates that endogenous hormones (S) are more effective than exogenous in suppressing body weight gain and that in an aging model, exogenous hormones suppress body weight gain compared to OV with no HRT. Exogenous female sex hormones can affect the caloric intake of sweet, fat and chocolate. Funding was provided by the Upjohn Pharmaceutical.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

FASEB Journal

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