The influence of various carbohydrates on the feeding pattern of rats fed zinc-deficient diets.

When dextrin, maltose, sucrose, glucose, and fructose were used as a source of carbohydrate in a diet, the food intake of rats fed either a Zn-adequate or Zn-deficient diet was evaluated daily over 28 d. The average food intake of all groups of rats fed the Zn-deficient diet was significantly lower than that of the corresponding groups of Zn-adequate control rats. The food intake of the dextrin group was the highest under both Zn-deficient and Zn-adequate diets, and that of the fructose group was the lowest. All rats of the dextrin, maltose, sucrose, glucose, and fructose groups with the Zn-deficient status showed a characteristic cyclic variation in food intake and fitted well to a Cosinor curve. The values of the mesor, amplitude, and period of the food intake cycles showed significant differences among the groups. The higher intake of the glucose diet than the fructose diet of rats fed a Zn-deficient diet may be related to the different metabolisms of the carbohydrates used, from the comparison of the quantities consumed in the corresponding carbohydrates of Zn-adequate diets.