Integration of internal and external signals in intake control.

A mechanism that controls dietary intake may facilitate or inhibit the individual’s ingestion of one or more solid or liquid materials at a particular moment in time. Appetite for food and drink is the momentary net facilitation of the disposition to ingest. Some appetite-reducing (i.e. inhibitory) signals arise from transient effects of recent ingestion: the resulting disposition not to eat or drink is called satiety. That being the topic of the inaugural Symposium of the Nutrition and Behaviour Group of the Nutrition Society that the present review concludes, I shall concentrate on moderation of energy intake. Nevertheless, the facilitation of ingestion is considered when directly related to satiety signals.