When you pump a lot of sugar and salt into the environment around fat cells from rats, those cells become less responsive to the hormone epinephrine that normally tells them to break down fat—like the hormone’s signal gets weaker.

When rat fat cells are bathed in a super-sweet, salty solution, insulin doesn’t work as well to stop adrenaline from making the cells release fat — even when insulin is at normal levels.

When rat fat cells are flooded with extra sugar and salt, the hormone epinephrine can’t make them release fat as well — it cuts the fat release in half.

When you pump a lot of sugar into fat cells from a rat, a little extra sugar makes the fat-burning hormone (epinephrine) work better—but too much sugar actually shuts down that fat-burning effect.

When you make the environment around fat cells from rats saltier using table salt, the cells don’t break down fat as much when they’re told to by a stress hormone—but they still break down fat at the same normal rate when left alone.

When rats have very high blood sugar (like in a dangerous condition called HHS), their fat cells don’t release as much fat into the blood — and that’s why they don’t make ketones, even though you’d expect them to.