Everyone likes Junk Food! But do you know what happens when Monkeys get access to Junk food!?
They become the JUNK FOOD MONKEYS!
This is a popular essay by by Stanford biologist and neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky.
Sapolsky has spent over 25 years studying the behaviors and stress levels of wild baboons in East Africa.
During his fieldwork, a neighboring troop discovered a garbage pit at a tourist safari lodge! So far so good!
But when you stop working and just get fed; you become, well lazy and a couch potato!
The baboons stopped foraging for normal vegetation and insects, choosing instead to eat discarded Westernized human food like fried food, meat, sweets, and processed leftovers!
Within a few years, these “junk food monkeys” began exhibiting metabolic diseases rarely seen in wild primates, including soaring cholesterol levels, insulin resistance, early signs of cardiovascular complications, and obesity!
There is more bad news!
The experiment came to a devastating end when the troop contracted bovine tuberculosis from consuming spoiled meat from tubercular cows in the dump.
Because they ate in close proximity, the disease spread rapidly, killing off the most aggressive, top-ranking males who guarded the garbage dump!
Now comes the final shift when the so called aggressive ALPHA MALES are gone!
The most profound discovery from this tragedy was not biological, but behavioral!
The whole troop now without any ORANGE COLORED ALPHA male shouting and screaming and being; well a Baboon, became an epitome of peace!
With the highly aggressive alpha males dead, the remaining troop was left with a higher ratio of females and less-aggressive, subordinate males.
The troop’s culture transformed into a uniquely peaceful society characterized by low aggression, high rates of social grooming, and cooperative behaviors!
Even when new, aggressive outsider males joined the troop later on, they were socialized into this unusually relaxed culture within a few months!
The baboons in this newly peaceful troop showed significantly lower levels of stress hormones (cortisol) and better overall physiological health metric!
This details how human biology, stress responses, and social hierarchies are deeply intertwined with our modern, artificial environments.
He demonstrates that while modern comforts (and processed foods) cause severe chronic stress and metabolic illnesses, our social structures and behavioral choices remain highly malleable!
So you want Baboon world peace!? Put the women in charge! And also STOP EATING JUNK FOOD!
Have healthy habits and watch good movies like RRR starring Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao!
Not now of course!
Shubh ratri…
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