Abstract

The effect of diet and dietary additives on voluntary alcohol consumption in male Sprague-Dawley rats was studied. Alcohol intake measured weekly and reported as ml of a 10% solution ingested per 100 grams body weight. A four week pre-experimental period was designed to determine individual tendencies to drink and thus to eliminate the high and low drinkers from the study. No difference was found in alcohol intake with either starch or sugar as the carbohydrate source; however, there was a greater weight gain ( p < .025) in those animals consuming sugar-based diets. Rats on poor-quality diets containing minimal amounts of vitamins and minerals continued to gradually increase alcohol consumption during the study. This diet, supplemented with coffee, caused the greatest significant increase in alcohol intake and the lowest weight gains. Addition of coffee to the diets significantly increased alcohol consumption (p< .005) but decreased growth rate (p < .0005) . However, when the poor quality diets were supplemented with vitamins and minerals, alcohol consumption was reduced by about 50% (p < .005) and weight gain was significantly increased (p < .0005).

The daily intraperitoneal administration of morphine sulfate significantly decreased alcohol intake (p < .02) and the per cent of total fluid consumed as alcohol (p < .02) but did not effect water consumption.

An attempt was made to find differences in dopamine metabolism of heavy alcohol consuming rats and non-consuming rats. Urine was collected for 24 hours after injections of radioactively labelled dopamine and was plated on thin layer chromatographic plates. These plates were scraped into vials of scintillation fluid and analyzed for activity. Although some differences were noted no attempt was made to chemically identify the substances.

Department

Nutrition

School

Graduate School

First Advisor

U. D. Register

Second Advisor

Albert Sanchez

Third Advisor

James W. Blankenship

Fourth Advisor

Merrit C. Horning

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Degree Level

M.S.

Year Degree Awarded

1972

Date (Title Page)

8-1972

Language

English

Library of Congress/MESH Subject Headings

Alcohol Drinking; Diet; Morphine; Dopamine

Type

Thesis

Page Count

v; 48

Digital Format

PDF

Digital Publisher

Loma Linda University Libraries

Usage Rights

This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Collection

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collection Website

http://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/

Repository

Loma Linda University. Del E. Webb Memorial Library. University Archives

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