A mathematical model of food intake
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Updated: Nov 11, 2025

Palatable Western-style Cafeteria Diet as a Reliable Method for Modeling Diet-induced Obesity in Rodents
Published on: November 1, 2019
Mantana Chudtong1,2, Andrea De Gaetano1,3,4
1Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand.
Abstract:
The metabolic, hormonal and psychological determinants of the feeding behavior in humans are numerous and complex. A plausible model of the initiation, continuation and cessation of meals taking into account the most relevant such determinants would be very useful in simulating food intake over hours to days, thus providing input into existing models of nutrient absorption and metabolism. In the present work, a meal model is proposed, incorporating stomach distension, glycemic variations, ghrelin dynamics, cultural habits and influences on the initiation and continuation of meals, reflecting a combination of hedonic and appetite components. Given a set of parameter values (portraying a single subject), the timing and size of meals are stochastic. The model parameters are calibrated so as to reflect established medical knowledge on data of food intake from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database during years 2015 and 2016.
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