Jm. Decastro, GENES AND ENVIRONMENT HAVE GENDER-INDEPENDENT INFLUENCES ON THE EATING AND DRINKING OF FREE-LIVING HUMANS, Physiology & behavior, 63(3), 1998, pp. 385-395
Males and females differ in the amounts of food and fluids they ingest
. Previous studies suggest that this may be due to differences in gene
tic influences on intake. Gender differences in the heritability of fo
od and fluid intake were investigated with 110 identical and 102 frate
rnal same-sex and 53 fraternal mixed-gender adult twin pairs who were
paid to maintain 7-day food intake diaries. Linear structural modeling
revealed significant genetic influences on the overall and meal intak
es of foods and fluids and specific beverage and food types. No gender
differences were found in the genes that influence intake or, for the
most part, in the magnitude of the genetic influences on intake. Howe
ver, gender differences were found for the between-meal intakes of flu
ids, being influenced by heredity for males but by common, familial, e
nvironment for females. The data suggest that intakes are equivalently
influenced by inheritance and individual environment for both males a
nd females and that most gender differences are due to a simple multip
licative difference between intakes possibly due to body size and/or c
aloric expenditure differences. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.