This is a scientific Americans 60 second science. I'm Erica Barris. Got a minute?

Sometimes after a long hard day, all you want is a bacon cheeseburger a pile of fries and maybe a dessert

donut after all the stress that seems to be eating you up can be eased by what you eat up

right? Sadly it's time to burst the bubble

in your comfort food milkshake.

Researchers asked women about things

that had recently stressed them out.

The women were then given a fat and calorie-packed meal of eggs, turkey sausage, and

biscuits and gravy. The researchers then measured the women's metabolism, blood sugar,

cholesterol, insulin, and stress hormones. Turns out that the most stressed women

had higher levels of insulin, which slows down metabolism and causes the body to

store fat, and that fat, if not burned off, accumulates in the body.

The women who had reported feeling stressed or depressed in the day before eating the meal

burned 104 fewer calories during the seven hours following the meal than women who felt

more mellow. The studies in the journal, Biological Psychiatry. If eating high calorie comfort food

to alleviate stress becomes habitual, the result could be an average

weight gain of 11 pounds per year, which brings its own stress, like spending money on new clothes.

Thanks for the minute, For Scientific Americans 60 Second Science, I'm Erica Barris.