Effects of dietary salt, fat, and carbohydrate on fluid and salt consumption of rats.

Studies were conducted to investigate the influence of dietary sodium chloride (NaCl), fat, and carbohydrate on NaCl preferences of rats. Both long-term (48 hr) and short-term (20 min) two-bottle preference tests were used. Rats were fed either a basal salt (1.17%) diet or high salt (8.37 to 8.59%) diets in which the level of sucrose was modified by substitution with either corn oil or cornstarch. Water and NaCl consumption was measured in 48-hr two-bottle preference tests using various concentrations (0.005 to 0.5 M) of NaCl paired with water. The results of these studies suggest that changes in fluid consumption were accounted for by an increase in water consumption which was inversely related to the sucrose to starch ratio and directly related to the NaCl content of the diets. A reduction in NaCl consumption was observed only during the short-term (20 min) tests.