FYI: Does Stress Make You Hungry?
Pizza Maureenpr/Getty Images Much of what scientists know about stress eating comes from cramming animals into Plexiglas tubes. When researchers subject lab rats to this particular discomfort for several hours every day, the rodents lose their appetites for healthy pet food. But if given access to junk foods, such as a high-sugar or high-fat treat, the rats pig out. "Sometimes an animal's calorie intake actually doesn't increase overall, but the kind of foods it's eating shifts," says Kevin Laugero, a Research Nutritionist at the Western Human Nutrition Research Center/ARS/USDA and Professor of Nutrition at the University of California Davis who has studied stress eating for more than a decade. "We think it's a selective focus on these highly energetic or energy-dense foods." When animals are stressed, they need additional energy to fight...