Why (and How) That Extra Slice of Chocolate Cake (and Other Indulgences) Really Does Kill You

Death by chocolate, indeed...

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You know how when you're full, really full, but still keep eating, then you go into what's not so much a food coma as it is a food death, where you feel life leaving you for a couple of minutes? That's because your cells are committing suicide--all the fat is screwing with your system, bringing you ever closer to fat toxicity, the very-true phenomenon in which fat actually kills you.

Word to the wise: stay away from that extra slice of indulgence. Seriously. Or you'll DIE.

That's the discovery by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, according to an article in Cell Metabolism. Science deciphers the academic paper, explaining that something called a small nucleolar RNA (known by scientists by its wonderful abbreviation, snoRNA) makes cells commit suicide (who knew cells had a conscience?): when too much fat enters the bloodstream and the parts of the body that usually deal with fat simply can't clean the glop, the snoRNA get into regular cells and make them go loco.

"On a large scale, this cellular kamikaze can lead to kidney and heart failure," reported Carrie Arnold. Meaning you should adhere to that classic strip in MAD from years ago, and make sure to order that eighth hamburger WITHOUT cheese--you're watching your diet, after all.
 
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