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Eat some Chocolate Cake and just Relax..!!
Maybe not!.. It's A GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS story...
We always knew this was so, but most of us were at a loss to explain it.. Eating something devilish, like cake or anything sweet, makes us simmer down.
Well, let me try to explain it in words that may assist us all in understanding.. This is with the help of, none other than the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.
THE GOOD NEWS. Those sweet and fatty foods that we often turn to in times of stress might in fact calm nerves, and relieve anxiety. That's the good news in an innovative biological theory of people's responses to stress. (If you are already stresses, you should stop here an get another Hershey's kiss, before proceeding)
The bad news (You knew this was coming so calm down) is that for those with chronic nervousness, and unusual levels of stress, those extra servings of comfort food come with potentially dangerous baggage, extra fat around the waist. SHAAZAM!
If that didn't do it for you .. Chronic stress, brought about by everyday trials and tribulations, is less well understood than are intermittent bouts of extreme, and acute stress. Here is what scientists know, that when a cat is suddenly attacked by a dog or a person prepares to give a speech, the adrenal gland pumps up production of stress hormones, including those known as glucocorticoids. When present at high-enough concentrations, glucocorticoids provide feedback to the stress-response system, eventually shutting it down.
To the researchers, it is still unclear how the stress response is controlled in animals that remain anxious for days at a time. However in the labs of physiologist Mary F. Dallman of the University of California, San Francisco and her colleagues, they aim to close that knowledge gap.
Drawing on their animals studies and experiments, these and other scientists propose that glucocorticoids work differently in the long term than they do in the short term. Meaning, that when chronically present in the brain and body, the hormones maintain the stress response instead of shutting it down. At the same time, they drive animals to seek out pleasurable foods, much the same as we do in our own nest. This directs the added calories to accumulate as abdominal fat,
However, there is a bright light in this process, at least in animal experiments. That unwanted extra fat eventually checks the glucocorticoids' alarmist effects and tells the brain to Whoa!
The results from several laboratory experiments with rodents (isn't this comforting.. get another Hershey's Kiss) support this view, the scientists say. In one set of conclusions, Dallman and her colleagues simulated chronic stress by increasing the brain concentration of a rodent version of the glucocorticoid called cortisol. As cortisol concentration rose, the rats responded by drinking increasingly more sugar water, eating increasingly more lard, and gaining abdominal girth. Ugh!
In an additional experiment, the researchers found that rats (maybe even you, you dainty mouse) with extra padding produce less-than-average concentrations of a brain chemical that triggers early molecular events underlying the stress response. HUH?

"If you put on some extra weight, there seems to be some sort of signal that says things are better," says Norman C. Pecoraro of UC-San Francisco, a coauthor of the paper. While Dallman and her coworkers don't know what signal the abdominal fat sends, they suspect it's involved with the regulation of metabolism.
The model "puts a new and more meaningful slant on what we mean when we talk about 'comfort foods,'" says Bruce S. McEwen of Rockefeller University in New York. "These may actually calm down an important brain system linked to anxiety."
In a fast-paced society where food is easy to get, glucocorticoid action probably causes chronically stressed people to take in extra calories and to gain weight, says McEwen.
"People are somehow stressed, and they are self-medicating because food is available," adds Pecoraro.
"We also eat sugar and fat because they are good tasting and cheap," notes Adam Drewnowski of the University of Washington in Seattle. The stress response isn't the only brain pathway that controls consumption of sweet and high fat foods, he adds.
Whatever accounts for the urge to eat a big helping of Lasagna, it's best not to indulge in it every day. The abdominal weight gain that Dallman and her colleagues have linked to glucocorticoid action increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes. {{{{{SHUDDER}}}}} OH! I see... *<@)... I just thought you should know..
SOOOO.. put down the Kiss and go kiss someone..