Let’s face it, many of us do it for free, but Washington University, in St. Louis, will gladly pay participants in its new study $3,500 to eat fast food for a period of three months.

I tell you, job offers don’t get much better than this. A top American university is conducting a study on obesity and asking participants to gain weight during a period of three months. In order to properly motivate them to fill their bellies with various types of fast food, researchers have decided to reward them with a check of $3,500 for the three months of heavy eating. The only real requirement is people who participate in the study must gain at least 5% their starting weight, before the three months are over. Considering they’re all allowed to eat whatever kinds of junk food they like multiple times a day, I don’t think that’s going to be  much of a problem.

Photo: samplesize

“By choosing fast foods, we can regulate that food intake much better than trying to tell people to try and decide on their own eating food at home, which requires judgment and educations on what you’re eating … By going to eat fast food, we know exactly what they’re eating,” said Sam Klein, a Washington University representative involved in the study. The main goal of the three-month eating marathon is to find out why some individuals who consume unhealthy food become overweight while others don’t. The study will also try to determine why some overweight  people develop diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and other conditions associated with obesity, and others don’t.

Photo: TaranRampersad

To qualify for this fast-food-eating study, participants must be between 18 and 65 years old, be a non-smoker and must not have diabetes. Also, they have to already be at least 30 pounds overweight. Just in case you were concerned about the health consequences of this research on participants, you should know the university plans to register them for a weight loss program, so no harm done…

Washington University has even released a list of restaurants participants can visit during the study:

– McDonald’s
– Taco Bell
– KFC
– Burger King
– Pizza Hut

If this sounds tempting, you can apply here.