Fat Rats

Helllllo! After moving to New York City, I've had many an interaction with rats. Thankfully, they have all be contained to subways and the street because I find them utterly revolting. In fact, when I woke up in the middle of the night last fall to an awful Eee Eee noise, like a little animal breathing, I came very close to my first indoor interaction with a rat. At first, I thought Easy, the dog from the apartment across hall, had somehow got into my room. When I realized this was impossible, I went to the next most logical conclusion- a rat. A rat had somehow gotten into my bedroom! What on earth was I going to do with a rat in my bedroom. I laid in bed, not moving, not breathing. I thought it would be able to hear me, and just do something completely grotesque. What exactly I had no idea, but I'm pretty sure rats only do disgusting ratty things with their little rat tails and little pointy rat teeth. I slowly turned on my light and looked down on the ground- no rat. Just my heater coming on for the first time. Moral of this story- I hate rats, and never thought I had much in common with these gross creatures until I saw this article- "Junk food addiction may be a clue to obesity- study".

Basically, these scientists separated rats in three groups- one had a healthy balanced diet, one had healthy balanced diet but could eat things like ding dongs, bacon and cheesecake etc. for one hour a day, and one group could only eat that shitty/wonderful junk food ALL THE TIME. Ultimately, the first two groups were fine, but the third group quickly got obese and just like kept eating. Oh, and they trained the rats to be afraid of the light by shocking them whenever a light came on. The third obese group, just kept eating their food when the light came up. No fear, just needed those sweet treats.

Also, it looks like the fat rats had lower levels of a certain dopamine receptor just like humans addicted to drugs! Woah- so, binge eating high-calorie delicious foods is like being addicted to cocaine. It's compulsive.

Thankfully, I don't ONLY eat high-calorie foods, although sometimes I feel like I do. But, this information is definitely handy when thinking about taking the first handful of potato chips, or opening that pack of ding-dongs. I mean, we all try to stay away from addictive drugs, right? Why wouldn't I try to stay away from over-indulging in junk food? Just a new way to think about things.

xoxo,

Marisa