This is Your Brain. This is Your Brain on Truffles.
My favorite news item of the week: Swiss researches have discovered a new psychological disorder which they've called "Gourmand Syndrome." Turns out that people who are passionately obsessed with food actually have lesions in their right anterior cerebral hemisphere -- lesions which do not appear in people who are not food obsessed. Those of us who suffer from Gourmand Syndrome exhibit "a preoccupation with food and a preference for fine eating" and may suffer from other, related "impulse control disorders." Unfortunately the study didn't answer many of the questions I had. For instance:
- Did eating too much artisanal chocolate and pheasant pie cause the lesions, or did the lesions appear prior to the craving for foie gras?
- Also, do poor people have the lesions too? And if so, is there a correlation between crime statistics and local availability of caviar?
- Does this mean I can go ahead and order that bottle of Chateau d'Yquem?
- Where do I apply for my disability check?
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