Women paid to gorge themselves

Press, 14 June 1984, Page 17

Women paid to gorge themselves

NZPA-AP Rochester Ten women will be paid JUSBOO (about $1239) each to live in seclusion for a month and gorge themselves with twice as much food as they normally eat. The gluttony was part of a study to determine whether overeating affects women in the same way as men, said Professor Gilbert Forbes, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Centre.

“One thing is fairly certain — we expect them to gain weight,” he said.

The women would be allowed out a few hours a day as long as they promise not to eat or drink anything, Professor Forbes said.

The rest of the time they would undergo daily tests of their blood, hormones, urine, metabolic rate and weight while eating nutritionally balanced, and oversized, meals.

“We will try to arrange their diet so that it is palatable to them. We won’t feed them just asparagus or anchovies,” Professor Forbes said.

“If they cannot eat the

entire meal at one sitting they will be allowed to eat extra meals." he said. Men have been found to gain an average of about 450 g for every 3600 excess calories they eat, although there is a wide variation among individuals. Professor Forbes said that his study to be conducted over the next year, was the first rigorously controlled experiment on women.

Only three volunteers had been selected, and recruiting had not been easy, Professor Forbes said. Many women were unwilling to put on weight, in spite of the promise of help to lose it after the experiment, he said. Moreover, the volunteers must live at the medical centre. “We cannot let them live at home. We have to have them under observation. They cannot be off some place having a Coco-Cola or something,” Professor Forbes said. Volunteers had to be 15 to 40 years old and of roughly average weight, without any big weight fluctuations in the last year, he said.