How Dietary Sugar Affects the Weight Gain of Baby Mice

Overview

Objectives/Goals My project was to determine if feeding baby mice supplemental sugar coated cereals would lead to obesity. I believe that the mice that are given sugar coated cereals will gain more weight at a faster rate than mice that are fed fruits and vegetables Methods/Materials Four mice that were 4 weeks old were placed in two separate cages. A base weight was obtained for all four mice. All four mice were given commercially prepared mouse food according to package directions. The mice in Cage A were given supplemental fruits and vegetables twice a day. The mice in Cage B were given supplemental sugar coated cereal twice a day. The mice were weighed in grams once a week. Results The mice all gained weight at about the same rate. The two mice that were given supplemental fruits and vegetables gained 7g. and 6g. The two mice that were given supplemental dietary sugar gained 7g. and 4g. Conclusions/Discussion There was not a significant difference in the amount of weight gained by the two different groups of mice. On further research, I learned that the fruits and vegetables that the mice received (carrots and bananas) had about the same abount of calories and carbs as the sugar coated cereals. I would like to continue this experiment using more mice and different supplements such as fatty foods. I would also like to use an exercise wheel to see if exercise had any effect on the amount of weight gained. It is also important to know that although the mice all gained about the same amount of weight, the mice receiving the fruits and vegetables were getting more nutritious food than the mice receiving the sugar coated cereal.

Competition history

• CSEF 2004 Mammalian Biology · Entry J1010

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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