Pathological overeating displayed by obese individuals shares similarities with compulsive drug taking behaviour observed in drug-addicted subjects. This raises the possibility that drug addiction treatments may show utility in the treatment of compulsive overeating. N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) is a cysteine pro-drug which has experienced some success in clinical trials to reduce the use of cocaine, marijuana and cigarettes, as well compulsive behaviours such as gambling and trichotillomania. We assessed the impact of NAC on addiction-like behaviour towards highly palatable food in a rat model of diet-induced obesity. Diet-induced obesity-prone (OP) and resistant (OR) rats were subjected to an operant conditioning paradigm where they were given the opportunity to lever press for high-fat high-sugar food pellets (S+). This alternated with periods of signalled reward unavailability (S-). Responding during S- periods is reflective of compulsive-like food-seeking behaviour (modelling the loss of control over behaviour observed in people suffering from addiction). OP rats had greater difficulty regulating reward-seeking behaviour during S- periods compared to OR rats. This persistent S- responding in OP rats was ameliorated by daily injections of NAC (100mg/kg, i.p.) administered 2h prior to the operant session for 10 days. By the end of the treatment period, there was no significant difference in S- responding between NAC treated OP rats and OR rats whereas vehicle treated OP rats remained significantly higher (p<0.05). These findings show that NAC can attenuate palatable food-seeking behaviour in OP rats and supports the potential use of this compound as an 'anti-craving' compound to reduce compulsive overeating in obesity.