Gavage

Gavage, from a French word meaning "to gorge," refers to various practices of force-feeding. It may be applied to enteric feeding, where a patient is intubated through the nose or mouth and fed because he or she is either incapable of swallowing due to some medical condition or refuses to eat. It is also applied to the force-feeding of fowl and cattle in order to fatten their livers in the production of foie gras and veal, respectively.

Gavage is also used to refer to a practice common in some Middle Eastern and North African countries where fatness is considered a marriage asset in women. In this case, girls are forced to overeat and painfully gorge on huge quantities of food, often accompanied by harsh physical punishment to prevent noncooperation. The intended result is a rapid onset of obesity, and the practice may start at a young age and continue over a period of years.