The findings related to the catabolic hormone cortisol are somewhat similar to those for testosterone. That is, cortisol has been shown to significantly decrease following ingestion of a high fat meal in healthy men [4, 17]. However, the literature is not in agreement with

regards to the cortisol response to a high carbohydrate meal. Some investigations demonstrate significant increases in cortisol following high carbohydrate meals in healthy men [4], as well as in women with abdominal obesity [16]. This could potentially be due to the finding selleck products of increased insulin and subsequent decreased blood glucose–which in response may stimulate an increase in cortisol in an attempt to maintain glucose homeostasis [22]. Other studies note non-significant changes in cortisol with carbohydrate feeding in resistance-trained men [6], and in healthy women [16]. Such discrepancies may be a function of subject population [16], meal size, and carbohydrate type (e.g., complex versus simple) [23]. Moreover, a potential confound in this work is the fact that some studies

involve an initial blood sample obtained in a fasted state [6, 16], while others include a breakfast meal prior to obtaining the initial blood sample, which is then obtained close to mid-day when the actual test meal is administered [4, 24]. Having a fundamental understanding Smad inhibitor of the circadian rhythm of both cortisol and testosterone [25, 26], it appears important to obtain baseline blood samples in the morning while subjects are in a fasted state. In the present investigation we compared the hormonal response to lipid and carbohydrate meals of different caloric content during the acute postprandial click here period. We hypothesized that the carbohydrate

meals would result in the greatest increase in serum insulin, while the lipid meals would result in the greatest decrease in serum cortisol. These effects would be dependent on meal size (larger meals = greater response). We believed that the response for testosterone would be similar between meals–and would decrease during the postprandial period. Methods Subjects and Screening Ten young, healthy men were next initially recruited from the University of Memphis campus and Memphis community. One subject dropped from the study prior to completing all four meals testing days due to a loss of interest. The sample size was chosen based on prior work in this area of study using similar outcome variables, in particular with a cross-over design. All subjects were non-smokers, of normal body weight, normolipidemic (fasting triglycerides < 200 mg·dL-1), non-diabetic (fasting glucose < 126 mg·dL-1), with no history of diagnosed cardiovascular or metabolic disorders. Subject descriptive characteristics are presented in Table 1. Table 1 Characteristics of 9 men.