Mika and Donnie are combing through research, looking at the correlation between stress and eating behaviors. What will they find in studies researching rats and "comfort food"?

What will be an ideal response?

Like many humans, rats under chronic stress selected high fat and sugar diets. They gained weight in their bellies and became calmer in the face of new, acute stress. People may eat in response to aversive emotional states as well, and experience the same calming effect. This shows that learning is involved, as well as biochemical effects. Eating in response to emotional cues is reinforced because tension is reduced, leading to an increased likelihood of eating in response to those cues later on. GRADING RUBRIC: 6 points total, 2 for rat behavior description, 2 each for implications in humans.