Nutrition Researcher Wins Award from Journal
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| Dean John de Castro, left, receives an
award from Michael M. Meguid, editor-in-chief of the journal Nutrition. |
John de Castro, dean of the College of Humanities and Social
Sciences at Sam Houston State University, has been presented
the 11th Award for Nutrition and Metabolism by the professional
journal Nutrition.
"This award is presented for the
most outstanding work directly relevant to the field of nutrition
and metabolism published in Nutrition," said Michael M.
Meguid, M. D., a professor of surgery and neuroscience and the
journal's editor-in-chief.
De Castro received the award, which
consisted of a plaque and $6,000, at an awards ceremony in Phoenix,
Ariz., in January.
The manuscript that earned the recognition
was entitled "Influence of heredity on dietary restraint,
disinhibition, and perceived hunger in humans," which was
published in June 2005. De Castro has also submitted a manuscript
concerning the circumstances and background of that research
that will be published in the journal's March 2007 edition.
"Dietary restraint, disinhibition,
and perceived hunger have been shown to affect food intake and
body weight and are thought to be risk factors for eating disorders,
but little is known about origins," said de Castro. "We
investigated the influence of heredity on these factors."
The research was conducted on 149 sets
of adult twins who lived apart.
"The tendency to hold back on
eating, dietary restraint, is one of many influences on eating
that are affected by heredity," said de Castro. "On
the other hand, some people lose control and overeat when they
go off their diet just a little bit in a phenomenon called disinhibition.
This tendency is highly related to overweight and obesity and
appears to be affected by how the person is raised and not by
heredity."
Since disinhibition may be a learned
behavior that produces overweight, it may be a target for therapy
to prevent obesity, he said.
In his upcoming publication, de Castro
said he began his research as a psychologist studying portions
of the brain that are concerned with emotion and motivation and
their effect on behavior and mental processes.
After completing his master's degree,
he worked with researcher Saul Balagura, who specialized in the
eating patterns of rats. That led to his current focus on the
eating behavior of humans.
De Castro, who was a professor and
chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas
at El Paso, was hired as a dean at Sam Houston State in April
2006. He taught and did research at Georgia State University
from 1974 until August 2003.
His degrees include
a bachelor of arts in psychology from Northeastern University (1969),
and master's (1973) and Ph. D. (1974) in psychology from the University
of Massachusetts.
—END—
SHSU Media Contact: Frank Krystyniak
Feb. 19, 2007
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