Self Selection of Diet

Abstract
The data obtained in these experiments are interpreted as meaning that the appetites for thiamine, riboflavin, and pyridoxine shown by animals previously fed diets deficient, respectively, in these vitamins are learned, probably as a result of beneficial experience. It is suggested that in the usual experiment, deficient animals continue to eat a vitamin-containing diet for 2 reasons: (1) A habit is set up involving association of a feeling of well-being with some characteristic of the diet; and (2) a stimulus to eat the diet, presumably the derived feeling of well-being, persists over a considerable period of time. Animals previously fed a diet containing riboflavin showed a slight but definite preference for a riboflavin-containing diet.

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit: