Cupcake 'orgy' awaits Uppsala students
In an experiment to measure the effects of fat on the human body, students at Uppsala University have volunteered to eat four cupcakes every day for six weeks.
Fredrik Rosqvist, a PhD-student specialising in fatty acids and metabolism, will spend hours each day preparing 8,000 cupcakes and monitoring the medical conditions of the subjects in a before-and-after study.
"The idea is that different kinds of fat have different effects on the human body,”Rosqvist told Sveriges Radio (SR).
The 40 volunteers who have stepped up to act as guinea pigs for the project were not difficult to persuade, according to Rosqvist.
Those taking part in the study, which will begin in September, must all be between the ages of 20 and 35 and have a BMI (Body Mass Index) between 20 and 27, which is considered normal.
Rosqvist expects the people taking part in the study to live their lives normally, but with the addition of several cupcakes each day, adding that his target is to see his subjects increase their weight by about 3% over the six-week period.
“We will start with four cupcakes a day, but if some put on weight more easily than others, maybe we will decrease the intake to two for them,” he added.
To be sure that the cupcakes are of the correct and uniform mixture though, Rosqvist has to bake them all himself.
To get an idea of the job awaiting him, the ingredients for 8,000 cupcakes include 130 kilos of flour, 105 kilos of sugar, 105 kilos of oil, 50 kilos of eggs and 25 kilos of milk powder.
“It will be a long time before I bake another cupcake for myself” he said to SR.
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Fredrik Rosqvist, a PhD-student specialising in fatty acids and metabolism, will spend hours each day preparing 8,000 cupcakes and monitoring the medical conditions of the subjects in a before-and-after study.
"The idea is that different kinds of fat have different effects on the human body,”Rosqvist told Sveriges Radio (SR).
The 40 volunteers who have stepped up to act as guinea pigs for the project were not difficult to persuade, according to Rosqvist.
Those taking part in the study, which will begin in September, must all be between the ages of 20 and 35 and have a BMI (Body Mass Index) between 20 and 27, which is considered normal.
Rosqvist expects the people taking part in the study to live their lives normally, but with the addition of several cupcakes each day, adding that his target is to see his subjects increase their weight by about 3% over the six-week period.
“We will start with four cupcakes a day, but if some put on weight more easily than others, maybe we will decrease the intake to two for them,” he added.
To be sure that the cupcakes are of the correct and uniform mixture though, Rosqvist has to bake them all himself.
To get an idea of the job awaiting him, the ingredients for 8,000 cupcakes include 130 kilos of flour, 105 kilos of sugar, 105 kilos of oil, 50 kilos of eggs and 25 kilos of milk powder.
“It will be a long time before I bake another cupcake for myself” he said to SR.
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