Sham-feeding response of rats to Polycose and sucrose.

Adult female rats were fitted with gastric fistulas and maintained at 85% of their ad lib body weight. Their real-feeding (fistula closed) and sham-feeding (fistula open) responses to polysaccharide (Polycose) and sucrose solutions were measured during 30 min/day one-bottle tests. The rats consumed similar amounts of a 1% Polycose solution during real- and sham-feeding tests, but their sham-intakes of 4%, 16% and 32% Polycose solutions greatly exceeded their real-intakes of these solutions. Similar results were obtained with sucrose solutions. The rats sham-fed more Polycose than sucrose at the 1% and 4% concentrations, while their sham-intakes of the 16% and 32% Polycose and sucrose solutions were comparable. In subsequent two-solution sham-feeding tests, the rats preferred 1% Polycose to 1% sucrose, but preferred sucrose to Polycose at 4%, 16% and 32% concentrations. These preference results indicate that rats find Polycose more palatable than sucrose at low concentrations, but sucrose more palatable at high concentrations. In addition, the findings that the rats preferred 4% sucrose to 4% Polycose in the two-bottle test, but sham-fed more 4% Polycose than 4% sucrose in the one-bottle tests, suggest that sucrose is more "orally-satiating" than is Polycose. These results provide further evidence for qualitative differences in the tastes of sucrose and polysaccharide. They also indicate that the amount of solution sham-fed does not necessarily reflect the palatability of the solution.