Relative preference for starch and sugar in rats.
When given a choice between fluids containing equal amounts of corn starch or glucose, Fischer rats preferred the fluid containing starch when the fluids contained 0.5%, 1%, 5%, or 20% carbohydrate, but not when the fluids contained 10% carbohydrate. Fischer rats preferred 0.5% sucrose over 0.5% starch on the first day of testing, but then switched to preferring starch. Rats of the CD strain also preferred 0.5% starch over 0.5% sucrose or 0.5% glucose, but showed no reliable preference when offered a choice of 5% starch vs. 5% sucrose or 5% glucose. Most experiments used corn starch, but rats prefer 1% rice, wheat, and tapioca starch over 1% glucose. Rats given only one substance to drink, drank more fluid if the fluid contained 1% starch than if it contained 1% glucose. Preexposing rats to either glucose or starch for 3 days did not influence subsequent preference for starch over glucose. Since the starch and glucose mixtures used in the present work had the same number of calories, preference for starch over glucose must be attributed to the hedonic effects of starch flavor rather than to the postingestive effects of starch.
Ramirez
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I
Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3308.
D000818:Animals; D004326:Drinking; D002523:Edible Grain; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology*; D005950:Glucose Solution, Hypertonic / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D013045:Species Specificity; D013213:Starch / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D013395:Sucrose / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D013649:Taste
D005950:Glucose Solution, Hypertonic; D013395:Sucrose; D013213:Starch