The reason you can't stop eating potato chips, even when you're full

Stressed much? Feeling under-appreciated? Those feelings just might be supporting your binges. Those trusty ladies and gents in the white coats (a.k.a. scientists) have been studying rhesus monkeys and found that those monkeys with lower social status were more likely to eat yummy banana chips beyond the feeling of fullness. From the New York Times:

"One possibility is that the fatty foods help block the monkeys' stress responses. Studies with rodents have shown that high-calorie foods cause a metabolic change that tamps the release of stress hormones like cortisol.

Another possible explanation, the one favored by the Yerkes researchers, is that the snacks activated the reward pathways in the brain. They may have provided the same sort of dopamine reward as cocaine, which was studied in a previous experiment with monkeys by researchers at Wake Forest University."

Of course, we're not monkeys, and monkeys don't have to answer to societal demands for weight and beauty (or their Wii Fit) but still enough to make you wonder. Is that why being rich and being thin seem to go hand in hand? Is this the underlying physiological mechanism that explains the link between socio-economic status and higher BMIs? Or are they just a bunch of dirty apes? Can binge-eating disorder be countered through aromatherapy, yoga and old Bob Ross episodes?

The comments are digging into a quart of Chubby Hubby.

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