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Prior Carbohydrate Consumption Affects the Amount of Carbohydrate that Rats Choose to Eat¹

Laboratory of Neuroendocrine Regulation, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139

Consumption of protein-rich, carbohydrate-restricted reducing diets has been associated anecdotally with an increased appetite for carbohydrate. We have tested the effect of such a diet on carbohydrate intake by rats. Rats were given either a calorie-restricted ketogenic diet containing protein and fat or a control diet containing carbohydrate along with the protein and fat. When allowed to choose from a pair of isocaloric, isonitrogenous diets containing 25 or 75% dextrin, ketotic rats ate significantly more carbohydrate and total food than control animals during the first 30 minutes of feeding, apparently requiring more of the carbohydrate to obtain an increase in brain tryptophan similar to controls. Ketotic rats ate a significantly higher proportion of total calories as carbohydrate. Similar results were obtained when sucrose replaced dextrin. When ketotic and control rats chose between two diets differing in proportions of fat or protein, no differences were observed between the groups in total food intake nor in the amounts or proportions of fat or protein eaten. We also compared the effects of a small, isocaloric premeal containing only carbohydrate (1.4 g dextrose) or mixed nutrients on subsequent carbohydrate consumption in otherwise untreated rats allowed to choose from 25 and 75% dextrin diets. Rats eating the carbohydrate premeal subsequently ate as much total food as the mixed-nutrient controls, but significantly less carbohydrate. These observations suggest that carbohydrate intake is influenced by prior nutrient consumption and that prolonged deprivation of carbohydrate can lead to over-consumption of this nutrient when it is reintroduced into the diet.

KEY WORDS: • appetite • obesity • carbohydrate • ketosis

¹ This study was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (AM-14228), the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NGR-22-009-627) and the Center for Brain Sciences and Metabolism Charitable Trust.

Manuscript received 3 May 1982.