The effects of chronic undernutrition and of total starvation on growing and adult rats

People interested in human nutrition have always held that there was some inherent difference between the metabolism in, and the reactions of the body to, chronic undernutrition and complete deprivation of food.Their view is mainly based on the fact that oedema is a serious presenting problem in undernutrition, whereas it is said never to appear in people who are eating no food at all.There have been suggestions also from animal work that the effects on the weight and composition of the organs are different.Jackson (19154 b), for example, found that the liver of the adult rat lost less weight during chronic undernutrition than during acute starvation.A comprehensive review of the older work was made by Jackson (I925), and Keys and his collaborators (Keys, Broiek, Henschel, Mickelsen & Taylor, 1950) have brought the subject up to date.