title: Human eating: diagnosis and prognosis.
abstract: Despite substantial recent progress, we remain without a comprehensive theory of human eating. The constraining influence of the single-factor, hunger-satiety model of feeding in animals is addressed. Three aspects of human eating--counter-regulation in dieters, the effects of social models, and the influence of distress on eating--are reviewed briefly, in an attempt to demonstrate that a simple hunger-satiety model cannot handle the data. It is imperative that we consider social, cognitive, and other influences on eating as important casual agents in their own right; these influences are not necessarily mediated by their effect on hunger-satiety. A comprehensive theory of human eating is not likely to appear soon, but there are grounds for optimism in the process (rather than the final result) of research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Herman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D006815:Hunger / Q000502:physiology; D011379:Prognosis; D012931:Social Environment