Studies in rats have yielded similar results relating ethanol to fat consumption. Animals that prefer fat exhibit higher ethanol intake than do carbohydrate-preferring rats (Carrillo et al., 2004; Krahn and Gosnell, 1991). Furthermore, rats show greater ethanol intake after acute exposure to a high-fat diet (HFD) compared to a low-fat diet (LFD) rich in carbohydrate, and they also drink more ethanol after injection of the fat-emulsion, Intralipid, compared to saline (Carrillo et al., 2004). In one study, rats exhibited greater ethanol intake when maintained chronically on a HFD (Pekkanen et al., 1978), although this was not confirmed in a subsequent report using a different feeding paradigm and diet composition (Fisher et al., 2002).
