chapter 1 - r384

Author's note: The story is set in 1982. In the early 80s obesity rates were less than 7%. Today they are over 33%. This was when the highly processed foods they would lead to the obesity epidemic were being developed.

January 1982.

"You mission is to develop additives and flavorings that consumers will crave."

That was the personal mantra that guided all of James' work. Growing up James never thought, "When I grow up, I am going to be a food additives researcher.", but he genuinely liked what he did. Sure, most people would be bored to death if he started telling them about working with emulsifiers, sweeteners, preservatives and stabilizers, but most people would never know their potential either. To most people food is simple. If it tastes good, they like it, otherwise they don't. They don't understand how the body can be tricked into craving a food.

James could not blame them though. The additives company he worked for didn't understand it either. They were just concerned with developing better preservatives and cheaper sweeteners. They didn't understand the real money would be in developing additives that resulted in near uncontrollable cravings. He had tried to tell his boss, "Don't just do a better job of preserving processed foods, make people crave them more. ", but his boss didn't listen and could not think outside of the box. Thus, James was left researching additives that increased cravings as a side project. In some ways, that suited him well though, as it potentially gave him the opportunity of using his girlfriend, Megan, as a guinea pig.

James had been dating her for a couple of years, and recently they had moved in together. Megan was 26 and a little overweight, which James actually liked, but secretly wished she was bigger. The problem of course is that hardly any women in their 20s were overweight, much less obese (remember readers, it's 1982). It was James' personal goal to change that.

James' research assistant Dan met him as soon as he walked in the lab that morning.

"I think you should see this. It's the R384 compound.", Dan said, as soon as James walked in.

R384 was a food additive that James had been working on. James followed him back to the lab mice cages. Dan pulled the food dish out of one of the cages, picked took a dropper, and added 3 drops of R384 to the mice food. Dan then lowered the food dish back into the cage of lab mice. As soon as he sat the food down, the 3 mice in the cage stopped what they were doing and hopped over to the food bowl. Within seconds they were eating. Soon they had consumed all the food in the bowl. Dan picked up the empty bowl, filled it with mouse food, and added another 3 drops of R384 to it. As soon as he sat it down, the three mice started to ravenously consume it. Within a few minutes they had consumed the entire bowl. Dan picked it up refilled it and added another 3 drops of R384. As soon as he sat it down, the mice started eating again. This time they ate a little more than half the bowl before they all were so full that they just lay there, their stomachs visibly stretched and distended.

"That is incredible.", James said.

"Yes, we have never seen anything like that with any other food additive before. Any mice or lab rats I try it on will compulsively eat until they are so full, they can no longer move.", Dan replied.

"I had big hopes for R384, but this far exceeds them.", James said.

"Yes, well there is a problem. Aside from the fact that the company will never sell an additive that results in this kind of compulsive over consumption, it's an endocrine disrupter. It impacts the thyroid and other hormones regulating metabolism, reducing the metabolic rate significantly. It also seems to make the body, particularly in females, generate more adipose tissue than the caloric intake would predict. I just can't imagine the company letting us move forward with this."

"I don't even think we should tell anyone about it yet then.", James replied, thinking to himself that he already had the perfect human guinea pig to try it on at home.