Effects of Cookie Cues on Delay Discounting for Sucrose in Binge-Eating Prone Rats Exposed to a Restricted High-Sugar Diet

Acute and chronic consumption of sugar-rich foods alters the probability of binge eating and reinforcement processes related to self-regulation of food intake. While delay discounting—preference for smaller, more immediate outcomes over larger, delayed ones—is linked to binge eating in humans, the role of diet is less studied. We examined the extent to which acute food presentation (i.e., food cues) affected food delay discounting in binge-eating prone (BEP) rats exposed to chronic, though restricted, high-sugar diets. Female BEP and binge-eating resistant rats were randomly assigned to a chronic Oreo-plus-chow diet, where 22.5% of calories came from sugar, or a chow-only diet. Delay discounting for sucrose was assessed twice: first under baseline, then followed by an acute cookie-cue condition where rats consumed a morsel of Oreo cookie immediately before the second session. Cookie cues induced higher delay discounting compared to baseline for all rats. A significant binge-proneness × diet interaction was observed. Binge-eating prone rats with the chow-only diet exhibited higher delay discounting than BEP rats given the Oreo-plus-chow diet. These findings indicate that cookie cues increase delay discounting but also suggest that limited and consistent access to sugar may serve as a protective factor that decreases delay discounting in binge-prone organisms.