Study: Rats Rather Starve Than Eat Healthy Food

Study: Rats Rather Starve Than Eat Healthy Food

kdka.com

Adding fuel to the idea that junk food is like crack, scientists at Scripps Florida say rats fed high-calorie junk food became addicted to the food and voluntarily starved when given healthy food instead of, say, cupcakes.

Repeat: The rats voluntarily starved instead of eating healthy food.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The study in an of itself is interesting, but it could be used against the people by the government as another control measure for the people.

I know there have been stories circulating about how the government could possibly add fat tax to what the so called experts consider unhealthy foods. There are some who believe the new health care bill could help usher that in. I believe the basic argument goes that if the government is at all paying for any of our health care, then they will believe they have a right to force people to eat healthier one way or another as preventive health care. Since the government option was not in the bill, the government may not have as much to stand on with that argument.

Schools are now not allowing any type of pop in the schools at all, and they are cracking down on what goes in the snack machines if they are even allowed in the schools any longer.

This study will only add fuel to the fire for those who believe people should be forced to eat healthier for their own good. It also may add fuel for those who believe the fat tax should be implemented, so we will supposedly not eat as much junk food.

Then the next thing you know a fat tax will not be enough. Some type of group or doctors will say people who eat too much junk food or over a certain weight should be treated as if they were junkies. There for they would need to be hospitalized or in some type of care to help them get rid of their junk food addiction.

Of course, junk food will still be sold to the public. If you take away the junk food, then you take away the profit for the government in the form of possible new taxes. If people would be treated as junk food junkies, then that would add profit to the addiction centers, and possible pharmaceutical companies who will then look for a drug to help cure people of the addiction.



kdka.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by Mystery_Lady
Then the next thing you know a fat tax will not be enough. Some type of group or doctors will say people who eat too much junk food or over a certain weight should be treated as if they were junkies.

is there a difference? what is it? drug addicts put crap into their bodies and the government locks them up for it, why not do the same with people who eat junk food?

to be fair, fast food addicts and the industry they support probably do more damage to our society than drug addicts anyway.

to be fair, fast food addicts and the industry they support probably do more damage to our society than drug addicts anyway.

Really? And where is your supporting data that says that "fast food addicts" probably "do more damage" than drug addicts? Do "fast food addicts" kill people for burger money? Do they break into homes to steal for burgers?

Common, use some common sense before posting trash like this. Comments like this are leading to the decline of many forums on this website.

Just more baseless drivel.

From the article

Scientists at Scripps Florida say rats fed high-calorie junk food became addicted to the food and voluntarily starved when given healthy food.

They simple acquired a taste for one kind of food, as nothing else was being offered.
Had they been fed only healthy food, the same would probably apply and they would reject a twinkie.
In the wild rats eat anything..if not they would be extinct..hello?
I fail to see how this is a valid study.
In the western world we eat what has been made readily available to us...junk.
Were we to travel abroad, we still seek out that junk..hence why McD's is all over the planet.
Start making healthy food more affordable and maybe there would not be a problem..oooops forgot..free enterprise.
As long as it can be manufactured, legally, it can be marketed for consumption.

For the record, dear scientists...Iam not a rat.

Originally posted by truthseeker1984
Really? And where is your supporting data that says that "fast food addicts" probably "do more damage" than drug addicts? Do "fast food addicts" kill people for burger money? Do they break into homes to steal for burgers?

Yes, they are called soldiers. That's what they do in Iraq and Afghanistan... kill people to have their paycheck, to then buy junk food.



Not to mention all those working in arms factories.

Originally posted by Vitchilo

Originally posted by truthseeker1984
Really? And where is your supporting data that says that "fast food addicts" probably "do more damage" than drug addicts? Do "fast food addicts" kill people for burger money? Do they break into homes to steal for burgers?

Yes, they are called soldiers. That's what they do in Iraq and Afghanistan... kill people to have their paycheck, to then buy junk food.

Not to mention all those working in arms factories.

I like the humourous twist....Star for you my friend.

reply to post by Mystery_Lady


I'm going to show this to my wife when she gets home
I know what she going to say too

"Rats Rather Starve Than Eat Healthy Food... who knew you had so much in common with a rat"

I do try, old dude with high blood pressure ya know but come on Tofu is just like eating snot! now why cant the make thing good for you taste like it?

Originally posted by truthseeker1984
Common, use some common sense before posting trash like this. Comments like this are leading to the decline of many forums on this website.

actually, i think it's members who have the reading comprehension of a trained chimp that are destroying this forum. if you re-read the section of my post you quoted, you'll notice i mention "the industry they support".

the social destruction being wrought by the fast food industrial giants is widely known, understood and discussed. do you need details or are you too bloated on big macs and cola to do more than a quick scan before you hit reply?



[edit on 29/3/10 by pieman]

That's crazy...they should try it the opposite way around and start by feeding them healthy food and then try to give them junk...that was an interesting point, the government is just trying to push the "junk food problem" in our face...

I do try, old dude with high blood pressure ya know but come on Tofu is just like eating snot! now why cant the make thing good for you taste like it?

Tofu isn't really healthy food. A healthy food would be balanced nutrition, fat, vitamin etc. supply from natural unmodified sources. Most of our vegetables come from synthetic fertilizers and they're sprayed with all kinds of chemicals including those from nearby industry, genetically modified... watered with human waste, etc. etc. So better buy food from Joe the farmer.

reply to post by AccessDenied

Actually I've had a hamster, and know people who had rodents as pets... They eat everything. If it smells they'll take a bite... if it bites back they flee. I currently even have a cat that does exactly that... it will eat ANYTHING, sadly she's exposed to rat poison which irresponsible people like to spread around.

Although rats may behave differently, I am sure mice do eat anything. If you have mice around you'll see their little bites on wood, paper, plastics, cables etc. I've only ever seen a rat few times and it was in urban areas (lol), but I've seen mice and their doings many times.

Thus far I had always learned that one of the reasons rats are so successful, is because they will eat anything when there is nothing else.

Odd.

reply to post by AccessDenied


You are absolutely right. The article never said anything about the scientists feeding healthy food only to the rats, and then see if they would eat the unhealthy foods.

Wouldn't this be a control glitch in their study? What would have happened if the scientists found if the reverse was true also? Then wouldn't it boil down to the tastes we get accustomed to rather than addiction?

The healthy addiction is a human et parrot phenomenon. They eat clay, whereas we learned to eat healthy even if it doesn't always taste good.. I don't think rats being fed healthy food initially would reject junk food, because animals in general, esp. mammals like sweets, i.e.- cup cakes. It SEEMS, that the lesser the intelligence the more inclined to go for what satisfies the taste buds most readily.

Originally posted by pieman

Originally posted by truthseeker1984
Common, use some common sense before posting trash like this. Comments like this are leading to the decline of many forums on this website.

actually, i think it's members who have the reading comprehension of a trained chimp that are destroying this forum. if you re-read the section of my post you quoted, you'll notice i mention "the industry they support".

the social destruction being wrought by the fast food industrial giants is widely known, understood and discussed. do you need details or are you too bloated on big macs and cola to do more than a quick scan before you hit reply?



[edit on 29/3/10 by pieman]

You said, and I quote "fast food addicts AND the industry they support." You are incorporating both groups into one blame. That is where you need to put the proof in front of us. It's as simple as putting a link up, friend. And by the way, I boycotted fast food restaurants years ago because of the inhumane practices they use in raising and slaughtering their meat.

Don't assume things because assuming things make an arse out of you and me.

Have a pleasant day.

[edit on 29-3-2010 by truthseeker1984]

I also will DISAGREE with this "finding".

As a rat owner my entire life, I suspect that they actually WERE feeding the rats crack. Disguised as food.

My rats are always right next to me. I am sometimes poor, which means they eat what I do. Like AccessDenied said, they are seriously adaptable critters.
They eat what is available to them.
When they acquire a taste that they like, and something else is presented to them... They won't dig in right away. But they sure as hell will not die, to avoid healthy food. When it's obvious nothing else is coming, they eat what is there, regardless of what they have developed a strong liking for.

Yes, they LOVE lettuce, even after things like chips and crackers have been offered to them.
No(!!!), I do not abuse my pets. We simply have times when we all eat what is around. Like most families.
It is SO much easier to feed these highly adaptable rats, than finicky cats and carnivore-only-dogs.

Rats WILL NOT STARVE over eating what is presented to them.
to those "researchers"

OK, after a discussion with my room mate, who also knows rats, there is a possibility.

Rats are insanely social creatures, just like humans.

I hate personal stories, but this one is relevant.
As a kid, I had many rats. I would take them outside with me, and let them play around in the grass. The rats loved this, they'd bounce in the grass and tackle each other. All the neighbors saw this.

An obese, alcoholic neighbor had seen me and my rats out and about. One day he approached me to take in a rat that he acquired from who knows where. This was the largest, fattest rat that I had ever seen. Upon agreeing to take this rat and receiving his cage, there was BEER in the water bowl, and junk like brownies scattered throughout the cage.
The guy obviously didn't even know how to take care of himself, much less an animal.

This rat was heavily obese, and probably unhealthy. I changed his diet immediately, to one of veggies and nuts/seeds. He adapted just fine.

What is the difference between this rat I had, and the rats fed the same crap in a laboratory? The rat I acquired received a social life with love from humans and other rats.
The lab rats received a lonely cube to live in, and immediately got depressed when their only comfort was taken away.

I have no idea how to apply this to the study, but in a lonely and depressing little BOX without normal socialization and access to natural light, the rats simply might not even care to adapt. Depression. The lab environment is not a natural one. And therefor, it makes me wonder how many of their other behavioral experiments are skewed for this reason.

How does this even come anywhere close to applying to people and what they eat? They need to do a test involving HUMANS in their natural environment, or this test is bunk, showing nothing except that the lab is depressing.

A cupcake? Lol, I'm sorry foods are not addictive in and of themselves. I have a cake I baked the other day sitting in the fridge. I'm not just sitting around all day cramming cake down my throat and my husband certainly isn't eating it for dinner as I would throw a fit. It is the eating itself that is addictive for humans. There are a lot of people addicted to food. It doesn't matter what the type of food is. It just so happens that junkfood is cheap so they are more likely to eat that as opposed to pigging out on lean beef and veggies all day..

Rats eat anything, there is some serious flaw in their study.

Meaning rats eat all the thrown out pizza crust.
Which is addictive along with the rest of junk food.
Dave Letterman sees rats as big as cats in New York City.
So big stomachs mean junk food addition or many bad carbohydrates
as Atkins might have pointed out.