[garrisonj]

“long-term damage to adolescent rat brains”

I keep hearing warnings from intelligent people that you shouldn’t trust conclusions drawn from rat studies because they are preliminary and usually sensationalized.

[thefz]

TBH if eating junk food harms a rat, that can live off literal trash, imagine what it does to a human whose dietary requirements are more refined.

Makes sense empirically, malnutrition is known to have a large impact on later life, I can imagine the same is true for bad nutrition as well.

[Terr_]

I would challenge the assumption that rats have evolved notably-superior stomachs or immune systems or whatever.

Just because the species can survive scavenging human trash doesn't mean individuals aren't running risks and getting hurt. Just because I always see some rats around the dumpster doesn't mean everything's going well for them.