AHS19

Since Pavlov, those interested in learning processes have oft explored how such processes affect a wide variety of eating phenomena. For instance, novel flavors can be made appetitive or aversive depending on if they are followed by calories or sickness. This relationship between flavors and caloric outcomes has been investigated by a number of theorists. Seth Robert’s suggested that learning such relationships can increase feeding after detection of a flavor that reliably signals caloric intake, presumably because it signals to the organism that high quality food is currently available and should be consumed. We directly tested this theoretical construct and a dieting intervention suggested by Roberts, by having rats consume a novel liquid that differed in its flavor and/or its caloric density and measuring subsequent weight gain and consumption. Our data does not support Robert’s account and instead points to innate metabolic responses to flavors regardless of their caloric density.