Although not directly related to subjective responses to alcohol, there is a substantial, positive association between the intake of sweets and alcohol. While a review of this literature is beyond the scope of the present article, a brief discussion is warranted due to overlapping QTLs or other genetic indicators between alcohol preference and saccharin/sweet preference in mice and rats (Blednov et al. 2008;Blizard, McClearn 2000;Foroud et al. 2002;Terenina-Rigaldie et al. 2003). Clinically, an individual’s proclivity for sweets is a strong predictor for alcohol consumption/abuse [c.f. (Kampov-Polevoy et al. 1997;Kampov-Polevoy et al. 1999;Kampov-Polevoy et al. 2003)]. AA rats display greater preference for saccharin and/or palatable solutions than ANA rats (Kampov-Polevoy et al. 1996;Sinclair et al. 1992), as has been shown for the P versus NP (Kampov-Polevoy et al. 1996;Overstreet et al. 1993;Sinclair et al. 1992;Stewart et al. 1994) and the UChB versus UChA (Tampier, Quintanilla 2005) lines. When the selectively bred HAP and LAP mouse lines were evaluated, they, like the majority of the rat selected lines, displayed a positive association between alcohol preference over water and levels of saccharin intake
