Normal Weight-Overweight

An Interesting Story

Nature has taken special measures to control the number of calories birds ingest so that Weight Watchers won't get much business from birds. Overweight would jeopardize flight.

Three million years of evolutionary design went into designing an efficient flying animal, and nature won't allow a build-up of fat to sabotage her efforts. To become a flying machine, every extra piece of anatomy that was not necessary had to be jettisoned. Heavy solid bones were replaced with light hollow ones-, teeth were discarded-, million of skin glands were eliminated for one preening gland; the body had nine large air sacs incorporated into it,- and even one ovary of the female was deleted.

With all this emphasis on lightness, an "efficient computer'' was installed which would allow the bird to consume only the amounts of energy needed for normal body functions. Logically, overweight birds can not fly sufficiently well to survive the rigors of the wild.

Birds' computers, then, signal hunger and calculate accurately the needs of the animals which vary depending upon size, activity, environmental temperature, growth and reproductive state, and also notify when these energy requirements are satisfied.

The volume of food eaten would depend upon its caloric content. A high caloric diet would satisfy birds' needs relatively fast and cause them to eat less, and a low caloric diet would not satisfy the caloric needs as easily and would cause birds to eat a greater volume of food. The system protects in both directions-it keeps birds from becoming obese and it also drives birds to eat to satisfy their caloric requirements.

When birds become adults, their bodies maintain the proper weight for flying their entire life, with only small seasonal fluctuations. In a sense, birds are guaranteed a prefect figure.

Well, how is it that some birds get fat? Although this statement may seem contradictory, about the only situation that allows birds to become fat is malnutrition.

To override the important weight control mechanism requires a serious problem, and when billions of body cells are missing certain nutrients, a craving develops which causes overeating. Birds crave for proper nutrition, and in their attempts to survive, they may overeat. The deficient body cannot rid itself of the extra calories and is forced to store them as fat.

Almost all fat birds can be considered suffering from malnutrition. Many of these birds also have fatty deposits in the liver, creating serious liver function problems.

Reducing fat birds, then, should be a matter of a diet correction. If these birds are changed to a balanced diet, the weight reduction will come automatically.

An exception to the rule of weight control in birds has been birds who have become so humanized that they "pig-out'' just as people do. They eat people food, enjoy the taste and begin to eat like we do-from desire-not from hunger.

These birds also return to normal weight without a reducing diet when fed a commercial balanced diet food.

Birds on balanced diets maintain their "flying" weight