It’s true. Folks who are chastised for eating the whole bag of chips are vindicated. They probably can’t help themselves. A new study shows that the infamous ‘Can’t eat just one’ response is caused by a gene. Problem is, many of us seem to have it…
She may well smile, after all, if science can figure out how
to manage the infamous ‘can’t eat just one’ gene!
Like the mechanic who allegedly found a live alligator under the hood of a stalled car famously said: “Well, there’s yer problem!”
Couldn’t resist…
I saw the headline and was hooked on this story immediately. Who wouldn’t be?
There have been countless jokes and memes over the years about the old potato-chip slogan, “Betcha can’t eat just one!” It was coined by Lay’s back in the hazy mists of early advertising history. An instant classic.
And as we all know, it applies to more than just chips. One extreme sufferer of the syndrome recently wrote of her own experiences in a post for website of E3 Personal Defense & Safety, LLC. The post quickly morphed from chips to one about guns.
Self Defense, she wrote…
“I wish someone had given me that same warning when I began searching for self-defense solutions,” Joy Allen wrote in 2017. “First, I tried knives. I bought one pocket knife that I absolutely loved. That one knife quickly multiplied to a collection of almost ten, including swords, a machete, a throwing knife, and even a couple of Ninja stars. It was like an addiction.”
Thereafter follows an interesting exposé of what drew one enthusiast to adore, almost worhship handguns.
“One wouldn’t wear the same pair of [shoes] to go fishing that they’d wear to a formal dinner. Firearms or any other self-defense solution are the same way. Different tools serve different functions. And some simply look good!”
Okay, Joy. Take 5 and catch your breath. And put down your adorable little Glock…
Tempted to call the nut house
I was initially tempted to the cops – and the guys in the white coats – about this lady before she goes into a rapture and wipes out her whole neighbourhood.
Then I found the report of a recent study by researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University in Japan insisting that she probably couldn’t help herself. Their theory is, ‘can’t eat/buy just one’ syndrome is governed by a gene.
The research team recently published a simple explanation for the behaviour couched in almost impenetrable technical jargon. We’ll skip as much of the jargon as we can, and focus on the cause and effect relationship involved.
In brief…
The team looked at a gene responsible for regulating appetite for fats and oils, high-fat diet metabolism, and blood sugar. They found that there was no difference in weight gain between mice without [the gene] CRTC1 in their MC4R-expressing neurons and control mice when they were reared on a standard diet. However, when given a high-fat diet, the CRTC1-deficient mice overate, becoming significantly obese and developing diabetes.
Got that? Good…
“This study has revealed the role that the CRTC1 gene plays in the brain, and part of the mechanism that stops us from overeating high-calorie, fatty, and sugary foods,” said team leader Associate Professor Shigenobu Matsumura. “We hope this will lead to a better understanding of what causes people to overeat.”
There you go. Simple as that.
My take
Makes sense to me. It’s just that the urge to ‘eat the whole bag’ is so strong – undeniable for many – that you’d think something more was wrong than just the expression of a single gene. But that’s what they claim. And I do hope managing that gene is as simple as understanding the cause and effect relationship between it and the ‘can’t eat just one’ syndrome!
~ Maggie J.