The Bear’s Approach to Winter: Pros and Cons

Pro: Getting thick with “an epic period of late-summer gorging, during which, every day, a bear may consume more than 50,000 calories and gain up to 16 pounds”

Con: Subsequently having to fast for up to seven months

Pro: Getting to be mostly asleep that whole time

Pro or Con, Up to You: No “drinking, urinating or defecating” either

Con: Acute kidney failure and punishing levels of insulin resistance

Pro: Bodily conditions that would pose fatal threats in a human are swiftly and harmlessly reversed for the bear in springtime

Con: “Perpetually high cholesterol”

Pro: Your genetic adaptations may hold important clues for human obesity

Pro: You’re a grizzly bear

[NYTimes]