In addition, the increased anxiety-like behavior discussed above in adolescent male rats consuming a lard-based high fat diet (45% kcals fat) with a 10% w/v sucrose solution for 8 weeks was associated with features of the metabolic syndrome such as reduced insulin sensitivity, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia and greater visceral adiposity (Gancheva et al., 2017) despite no differences in body weight, thus implying a potential role for metabolic impairments rather than increased body mass per se. This evidence concerns the gene INS and Anxiety.