Three years ago we found out that the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo’s gorillas were not only fat, but suffering from heart disease. Cool, just like the rest of us.
Mokolo and Bebac needed help, like Weight Watchers or a stomach stapling or something. Animal experts came up with something a little easier — a simple change of diet. More specifically, the elimination of sugar.
Guess what? It’s working. (Whaddya know: not eating crap actually works to make you healthier. Who knew?) Each has dropped about 65 pounds even as they are eating twice as many calories a day. Of course, those calories are coming from vegetables, so it’s totally cool if not totally less delicious.
The most interesting development in the diet change isn’t just that the gorillas are healthier and slimmer, it’s that they’ve stopped spitting up, eating, and re-spitting up their food.
This article appears in Feb 16-22, 2011.
