Abstract
Obesity is an increasing problem and identification of the driving forces for overeating of energy‐rich food is important. Previous studies show that the stress and sex steroid allopregnanolone has a hyperphagic effect on both bland food and palatable food. If allopregnanolone induces a preference for more palatable or for more energy‐rich food is not known. The aim of this study was to elucidate the influence of allopregnanolone on food preference. Male Wistar rats were subjected to two different food preference tests: a choice between standard chow and cookies (which have a higher energy content and also are more palatable than chow), and a choice between a low caloric sucrose solution and standard chow (which has a higher energy content and is less palatable than sucrose). Food intake was measured for 1 h after acute subcutaneous injections of allopregnanolone. In the choice between cookies and chow allopregnanolone significantly increased only the intake of cookies. When the standard chow was the item present with the highest caloric load, the chow intake was increased and allopregnanolone had no effect on intake of the 10% sucrose solution. The increased energy intakes induced by the high allopregnanolone dose compared to vehicle were very similar in the two tests, 120% increase for cookies and 150% increase for chow. It appears that in allopregnanolone‐induced hyperphagia, rats choose the food with the highest energy content regardless of its palatability.
Highlights
More and more people are struggling with being overweight and obese; understanding the underlying mechanisms of our eating behavior is of great importance
Bland food is rarely eaten in excess, which contrasts to palatable food that is often eaten beyond energy requirements (Kenny 2011)
When the rats had access to both standard chow, which is relatively energy-rich but with a bland taste, and a 10% sucrose solution, which is energy dilute but more palatable, allopregnanolone injections significantly increased chow intake (chi-sq = 15.12; P ≤ 0.001). 2.5 mgÁkgÀ1 allopregnanolone increased the energy intake by 4.6 kcal compared to vehicle (Z = À3.23; P ≤ 0.01; Fig. 1)
Summary
More and more people are struggling with being overweight and obese; understanding the underlying mechanisms of our eating behavior is of great importance. Eating less food than energy requirements is hard to obtain, the opposite, excessive eating is rather easy and it has been suggested that obese subjects have a weaker input from satiety signals (Lawton et al 1993). Bland food is rarely eaten in excess, which contrasts to palatable food that is often eaten beyond energy requirements (Kenny 2011). Food intake can be determined by other factors than pure energy requirements. Today the general idea is that food intake is driven both by the reward a palatable food can give and the need for energy (Goldstone et al 2009; Berthoud 2011)
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