Dietary influences on the development of sucrose acceptability in rats.

Weanling rats were placed on a high-fat diet or chow. Beginning at 5 weeks of age, they were tested for acceptability of 4 sucrose solutions of different concentrations once a week until they showed the previously established adult pattern of acceptability. Subjects on the chow diet showed a gradual transition from a juvenile to adult pattern of acceptability, that is, a progressive downward shift in the concentration of solution that is most acceptable. Subjects on the high-fat diets never showed the adult pattern but continued to display a juvenile pattern of acceptability throughout the experiment. The data obtained from the subjects on the high-fat diets are similar to those on taste preferences in obese humans.