Abstract
BackgroundRats prefer energy-rich foods over chow and eat them to excess. The pattern of eating elicited by this diet is unknown. We used the behavioral satiety sequence to classify an eating bout as a meal or snack and compared the eating patterns of rats fed an energy rich cafeteria diet or chow.MethodsEight week old male Sprague Dawley rats were exposed to lab chow or an energy-rich cafeteria diet (plus chow) for 16 weeks. After 5, 10 and 15 weeks, home-cage overnight feeding behavior was recorded. Eating followed by grooming then resting or sleeping was classified as a meal; whereas eating not followed by the full sequence was classified as a snack. Numbers of meals and snacks, their duration, and waiting times between feeding bouts were compared between the two conditions.ResultsCafeteria-fed rats ate more protein, fat and carbohydrate, consistently ingesting double the energy of chow-fed rats, and were significantly heavier by week 4. Cafeteria-fed rats tended to take multiple snacks between meals and ate fewer meals than chow-fed rats. They also ate more snacks at 5 weeks, were less effective at compensating for snacking by reducing meals, and the number of snacks in the majority of the cafeteria-fed rats was positively related to terminal body weights.ConclusionsExposure to a palatable diet had long-term effects on feeding patterns. Rats became overweight because they initially ate more frequently and ultimately ate more of foods with higher energy density. The early increased snacking in young cafeteria-fed rats may represent the establishment of eating habits that promote weight gain.
Highlights
What people eat is controlled by a number of factors
People like foods that are rich in fat, sugar, and protein, select them in preference to foods that are low in these nutrients, and eat more of them [3], [4], [5]
It is clear that rats fed the cafeteria diet ate more, consumed more energy and showed a greater increase in body weight than those fed chow
Summary
What people eat is controlled by a number of factors. Sometimes food selection is determined by what is available or affordable, and sometimes by dietary or ethical considerations, religious or cultural practices. People like foods that are rich in fat, sugar, and protein, select them in preference to foods that are low in these nutrients, and eat more of them [3], [4], [5]. The modern diet in developed countries has been designed to exploit these sources of liking This diet is replete with foods that are rich in fat, sugar, and protein, and consists in a wide range of foods that differ in their flavors and textures. These foods are readily available, procured with little or no energy expenditure, and are sufficiently cheap as to be affordable by most people in developed countries. We used the behavioral satiety sequence to classify an eating bout as a meal or snack and compared the eating patterns of rats fed an energy rich cafeteria diet or chow
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