The duration of intermittent access to preferred sucrose-rich food affects binge-like intake, fat accumulation, and fasting glucose in male rats

Abstract

Many people restrict their palatable food intake. In animal models, time-limiting access to palatable foods increases their intake while decreasing intake of less preferred alternatives; negative emotional withdrawal-like behavior is sometimes reported. In drug addiction models, intermittent extended access drives greater changes in use than brief access. When it comes to palatable food, the impact of briefer vs. longer access durations within intermittent access conditions remains unclear. Here, we provided male rats with chow or with weekday access to a preferred, sucrose-rich diet (PREF) (2, 4, or 8 h daily) with chow otherwise available. Despite normal energy intake, all restricted access conditions increased weight gain by 6 weeks and shifted diet acceptance within 1 week. They increased daily and 2-h intake of PREF with individual vulnerability and decreased chow intake. Rats with the briefest access had the greatest binge-like (2-h) intake, did not lose weight on weekends despite undereating chow, and were fattier by 12 weeks. Extended access rats (8 h) showed the greatest daily intake of preferred food and corresponding undereating of chow, slower weight gain when PREF was unavailable, and more variable daily energy intake from week to week. Increased fasting glucose was seen in 2-h and 8-h access rats. During acute withdrawal from PREF to chow diet, restricted access rats showed increased locomotor activity. Thus, intermittent access broadly promoted weight gain, fasting hyperglycemia and psychomotor arousal during early withdrawal. More restricted access promoted greater binge-like intake and fat accumulation, whereas longer access promoted evidence of greater food reward tolerance.

Importance of sex and trauma context on circulating cytokines and amygdalar GABAergic signaling in a comorbid model of posttraumatic stress and alcohol use disorders

“…Latency to eat and intake of sucrose-rich pellets 35 in an unfamiliar double-size cage were measured. Rats received home cage pre-acclimation to the food 24-hr earlier.…”

Neurobehavioral Effects of Restricted and Unpredictable Environmental Enrichment in Rats

“…REE Increases the Activity and the Rate of Appetitive USVs in the Cage Several lines of evidence have shown that restricted or unpredictable access to rewarding stimuli (e.g., food or drugs of abuse) increases both incentive motivation attributed to reward-predicting cues and approaching and consummatory responses toward the reward (Anselme et al, 2013;Brenes and Schwarting, 2014;Schultz, 2016;Kreisler et al, 2018). Considering that laboratory rodents prefer larger and complex cages, social contact, and exercise (Olsson and Dahlborn, 2002;Van Loo et al, 2003;Heyse et al, 2015), we assume that EE is rewarding for rodents.…”

“…We assumed, therefore, that the benefits derived from EE may be determined by motivational factors related to how much animals attribute incentive salience to such stimulations. The motivational value of an appetitive stimulus can be potentiated through unpredictable presentations (Anselme et al, 2013;Schultz, 2016;Kreisler et al, 2018). Thus, to enhance the rewarding properties of the EE, we developed a protocol in which access to the EE cage was restricted to specific durations ranging from 2 to 48 h unpredictably for 30 days.…”

Consummatory, Feeding Microstructural, and Metabolic Effects Induced by Limiting Access to Either a High-Sucrose or a High-Fat Diet

“…These results are consistent with other animal models of binge-like eating. While limiting access to high-fat diets generally does not affect body weight gain [ 7 , 30 ], conversely, several limited access procedures to sucrose diets have been shown to increase body weight gain [ 4 , 31 , 38 ]. Future studies will be needed to determine the mechanism underlying the different metabolic effects of limited access to the two diets.…”