Fitness Friday: Rats Starve Rather Than Eat Healthy Food

All you, all the time.

Speaking of you, my personal trainer and I have come up with a new plan to blast my fat. Can’t wait to see if it works and share it with YOU!

See, it’s all about you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This from the “I-think-I-already-knew-that-but-I’m-so-glad-someone-proved-it-in-a-rat-study” files:

A new study performed on rats suggests junk food is highly addictive.

Scripps Florida scientists Paul Kenny and Paul Johnson tell the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that junk food changed the rats’ brain chemistry in the same way that chronic cocaine use alters an addicts brain functions.

In the experiment, one group of rats was given healthy, nutritionally balanced food. A different group was given “unlimited access to the worst stuff Johnson could find at [the supermarket] Publix, including bacon, sausage, cheesecake, pound cake, Ding Dongs and frosting,” reports the Sun-Sentinel.

I am so very sorry for that bad joke.

Junk food alters the brain’s chemistry by releasing dopamine that would normally be released when having sex, snorting cocaine or eating a rich dessert, say the scientists. The junk food-addicted rats learned that the easiest way to experience pleasure was by eating high-calorie, high-fat food.

Researchers want to point out, this is an animal study not a human study, so the findings may not apply to humans.

Ummmm…Dear Research People, no worries: it definitely applies to humans. Some months back, I conducted my own study involving Cheddar Cheese SunChips. I was the sole participant in the study. Just me and my SunChips. I opened the bag, yet failed to measure out the serving size indicated on the nutrition label—I committed the mortal sin of calorie-counting and proper portion-sizing. I left the bag wide open on the table while I ate lunch. Just sitting there open. Wide.

The last thing I remember I was running toward the door. I had to find the passage back to the place I was before. “Goodnight said the night man. We are programmed to receive. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”

Then I wrote a blog post with a really bad joke and the word “Ratkins” in it.

More recently, just last week at an undisclosed location for my son’s Cub Scout event, I saw this in front of me.

I don’t know what this proves, except that one should look to see what is printed on the back of one’s chair before sitting in it, lest some insensitive health nut with her dopamine inhibitor still suppressed from Cheddar Cheese SunChips and a bit bitter about a stubborn 12 to 18 pounds sits behind you with a camera, takes a picture of your rear end, and posts it on the internet because she thinks it’s funny that the back of your chair says “Body Recall.”

And that concludes the world’s longest run-on sentence and the world’s worst joke in the very same post. You’re welcome.

This is not the only study suggesting that food can be addictive. Corsica JA and Pelchat ML from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago published an article in the March 2010 issue of Current Opinion in Gastroenterology reviewing previous studies and identifying many foods that can be addictive including sweets, carbohydrates, fats, sweet/fat combinations, possibly processed and/or high salt foods, and Cheddar Cheese SunChips.

I added that last one, having conducted my own study, and all. The good news is,if my book deal doesn’t work out, I can always submit articles to Current Opinion in Gastroenterology. That will attract large speaking engagements. And build my platform.

Have a Happy Easter.