Rodents are an important model organism for the study of human obesity. To study obesity in rodents, you have to make them fat first. There are many ways to do this, from genetic mutations, to brain lesions, to various diets. However, the most rapid and effective way to make a normal (non-mutant, non-lesioned) rodent obese is the “cafeteria diet.” The cafeteria diet first appeared in the medical literature in 1976 (1), and was quickly adopted by other investigators. Here’s a description from a recent paper (2):
“In this model, animals are allowed free access to standard chow and water while concurrently offered highly palatable, energy dense, unhealthy human foods ad libitum.”
In other words, they’re given an unlimited amount of human junk food in addition to their whole food-based “standard chow.” In this particular paper, the junk foods included Froot Loops, Cocoa Puffs, peanut butter cookies, Reese’s Pieces, Hostess Blueberry MiniMuffins, Cheez-its, nacho cheese Doritos, hot dogs, cheese, wedding cake, pork rinds, pepperoni slices and other industrial delicacies. Rats exposed to this food almost completely ignored their healthier, more nutritious and less palatable chow, instead gorging on junk food and rapidly attaining an obese state. – Stephan Guyenet from HERE
What’s the takeaway? Eat natural food.
I highly recommend reading his blog and his 4 part series “Food Reward: a Dominant Factor in Obesity”:
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
About Sam Lloyd
