The Psychology of Eating.

The psychology of eating.

Front Psychol. 2013; 4: 215
Meule A, Vögele C

HubMed – eating

A risky occupation? (Un)healthy lifestyle behaviors among Danish seafarers.

Health Promot Int. 2013 Apr 28;
Hjarnoe L, Leppin A

Sedentary working conditions, smoking, unhealthy eating habits and lack of exercise are some of the lifestyle risk factors that form a potentially growing problem for seafarers within certain parts of the maritime sector creating a heightened risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Health promotion initiatives to combat this negative development requires as a first step identifying the magnitude of the different risk factors. A survey was conducted in 2007-08 with two Danish shipping companies on seafarers’ health, wellbeing, diet, smoking and physical activity. In addition, a health profile was offered to the respondents, consisting of physiological measurements, such as fitness rating, body mass index (BMI), cholesterol measurement and blood pressure. The response rate in the questionnaire study was 57% (n = 360) of which 76% (n = 272) of the respondents received a health profile. Results (males) showed 44% daily smokers compared with 32% in the general Danish adult male population. Twenty-five percent of the seafarers were obese with a BMI > 30 compared with 12% of the Danish adult male population. Fifty-one percent of the respondents were defined as having metabolic syndrome, compared with 20% of the Danish adult male population. Seafaring is a risky occupation when looking at the seafarers’ health and wellbeing. The results of this survey confirm the need for health promotion interventions such as smoking cessation courses, healthy cooking courses and physical exercise programs, etc. that can enable healthier lifestyle. The challenge will be to take into account the special seafaring conditions when implementing the interventions. HubMed – eating

Fallback Foods, Preferred Foods, Adaptive Zones, and Primate Origins.

Am J Primatol. 2013 Apr 29;
Rosenberger AL

Appreciation has grown for the impact of tropical forest seasonality and fallback foods on primate diets, behaviors, and morphology. As critically important resources in times of shortage, seasonal fallback foods may have an outsized role in selecting for form and function while the diversity of preferred plant foods has played an equally prominent role in shaping primate evolution. Here, hypotheses of primate origins are examined in the context of food choice models developed by Marshall and Wrangham [2007] and related to the broader concepts of adaptive zones and radiations. The integrated evolution of primate diet and positional behavior is consistent with a growing reliance on angiosperm products-not prey-as preferred and seasonal fallback foods, temporally and phylogenetically coordinated with evolutionary phases of the angiosperm adaptive radiation. Selection for an incisor oriented but non-specialized heterodont dentition, in contrast with most other orders, attests to the universal role of a highly varied vegetation diet as the primates’ primary food resource, with diverse physical properties, phenology and high seasonality. A preference by plesiadapiforms for eating small protein- and lipid-rich seeds may have predisposed the primates and advanced angiosperms to diversify their evolving ecological interdependence, which established the primate adaptive zone and became realized more fully with the rise of the modern euprimate and angiosperm phenotypes. The “narrow niche” hypothesis, a recent challenge to the angiosperm co-evolution hypothesis, is evaluated further. Finally, I note support for visual predation as a core adaptive breakthrough for primates or euprimates remains elusive and problematic, especially considering the theoretical framework provided by the Marshall-Wrangham model, updated evidence of primate feeding habits and the counterpoint lessons of the most successful primate predators, the tarsiiforms. Am. J. Primatol. 9999:1-8, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. HubMed – eating