An Ecological Validity Model for the Prevention of Obesity: Non-Nutritive Sweetener Consumption in Rats and the Effects of Switching from Sugar-Sweetened to Diet Beverages

Reducing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) has been encouraged due to its strong association with obesity. In parallel, consumption of “diet” or non-nutritive sweetened (NNS) beverages has significantly increased. This has led to burgeoning numbers of animal studies investigating metabolic consequences of NNS beverage consumption. However, most animal study designs do not reflect the way humans consume NNS drinks, thus reducing translational capacity. The present experiment aimed to find an ecologically valid model of NNS consumption and evidence of metabolic recovery following a switch from sucrose to NNS in female and male Sprague Dawley rats. The main behavioural outcome was consumption of commercially available NNS beverages during preference and acceptance testing, with changes to consumption following chronic sucrose consumption as a secondary outcome. The main metabolic outcome was retroperitoneal fat pad mass at culling, with body weight gain and fasting blood glucose levels (FBGLs) as secondary outcomes. In a two-phase experiment, behavioural tests were performed before and after 4 weeks of ad libitum access to 10% w/v sucrose. During Phase 2, the rats were given ad libitum access to assigned commercial NNS drinks for a further 4 weeks, with controls provided access to water only. FBGLs were measured at the end of Phases 1 and 2. Female and male rats accepted commercially available NNS beverages, although the volumes consumed varied considerably. Following the switch from sucrose to NNS (containing no sucrose), no group difference was observed in retroperitoneal fat mass, body weight change or FBGLs, suggesting both sexes exhibited limited metabolic recovery. These findings demonstrate that an ecologically valid model for NNS consumption can be developed for some commercially available NNS beverages to further enhance translational capacity.