Is the Control of Fat Ingestion Sexually Differentiated?

Sexual differentiation is a fundamental aspect of human physiology [Wizemann TM, Pardue M-L, editors. Exploring the biological contributions to human health: does sex matter? Washington DC, National Academy Press, 2001]. Therefore, this review considers whether the physiological control of eating, as related to dietary fat, is sexually differentiated. The effects of dietary fat are considered from the perspective of stimuli controlling eating that arise from oral, gastric, intestinal, hepatic, and adipose sites. The data reviewed provide substantial support for hypothesis that many such controls of fat ingestion are sexually differentiated in both humans and laboratory animals. Because as yet little is established definitively, however, the apparently most promising questions and methodologies for future work are emphasized.