Stressed & FAT!

Big news this week, ‘Stress’ has been identified as a major cause of obesity by scientists. Forgive me but having been what’s commonly known as ‘A Stress Eater’ for most of my life, this latest scientific discovery comes as no huge surprise. Although I must admit jumping to conclusions I thought that they were getting at the actual AMOUNT of food that I manage to shovel in when stressed, when in fact researchers at Georgetown University have found that stress has a direct effect on fat accumulation, body weight and metabolism. So its NOT just the comfort eating that does it! As part of the study, stressed and unstressed mice were fed normal diets and high calorie diets. The mice on normal diets did not become obese, but stressed mice on high calorie diets gained twice as much fat as unstressed mice on the same diet. What they seem to be getting at here is that if its possible to unlock receptors in the body’s fat cells to grow in size and number, it may also be possible to BLOCK the same receptors to prevent fat growth or make cells die because of a special molecule that the body releases when stressed. I’m so confused....... just pleeeese somebody let me know when the pill is available!