The rat's acceptance and preference for sucrose, maltodextrin, and saccharin solutions and mixtures.
Prior work indicates that rats prefer a mixture of sucrose and maltodextrin to either carbohydrate alone. The present experiment examined whether a sucrose + maltodextrin (S + M) mixture also increases total fluid intake as does saccharin + carbohydrate mixtures. In 23 h/day, one-bottle tests male rats consumed more of a 1% sucrose + 1% maltodextrin mixture than they did of either 2% sucrose or 2% maltodextrin. Adding 0.2% saccharin to the S + M mixture further stimulated consumption. The rats overconsumed the mixture solutions primarily by increasing bout size. In two-bottle choice tests the rats strongly preferred the S + M mixture to the 2% sucrose and 2% maltodextrin solutions and showed a nonreliable preference for the S + M + saccharin mixture to the S + M mixture. The palatability of the S + M mixture is thought to be related to the activation of separate "sweet" and "maltodextrin" tastes.
Sclafani
A
A
Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College and The Graduate School, City University of New York, 11210, USA. ASCLAFAN@BROADWAY.GC.CUNY.EDU
Thompson
B
B
Smith
J C
JC
D000818:Animals; D019422:Dietary Sucrose / Q000494:pharmacology; D004327:Drinking Behavior; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008320:Maltose / Q000494:pharmacology; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012439:Saccharin / Q000494:pharmacology; D012996:Solutions; D013549:Sweetening Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013649:Taste / Q000187:drug effects*
D019422:Dietary Sucrose; D011134:Polysaccharides; D012996:Solutions; D013549:Sweetening Agents; D008320:Maltose; C008315:maltodextrin; D012439:Saccharin