Can someone actually become addicted to eating Oreos?
According to the United International Press, a new study found that eating "America's favorite cookies" maybe be just as addictive as cocaine. In lab rats, just like humans, they have a sweet spot for the creamy center.
Connecticut College psychology and neuroscience assistant professor Joseph Schroeder and four students, Jamie Honohan, Becca Markson, Gabriela Lopez and Katrina Bantis, found that rats formed an equally strong association between the pleasure effects of eating Oreos and a specific environment as they did to cocaine and morphine in a specific environment.
According to Schroeder, eating the sugary treats activates neurons in the brain's "pleasure center."
"Our research supports the theory that high-fat/high sugar foods stimulate the brain in the same way that drugs do," Schroeder said. "That may be one reason people have trouble staying away from them and it may be contributing to the obesity epidemic."
Researchers also found that eating cookies activated more neurons in the brain's "pleasure center" than exposure of drugs of abuse. To test the addictiveness, the rats were placed into a maze and researchers measured the association between the drug and the environment. On one side of the maze, they gave the hungry rats Oreos and on the conflicting side, another group of rats were given rice cakes. The rats who were given the option of hanging out where they liked and researchers measured the length of time spent on either side of the maze.
The results were compared with the results of the rats who were given an injection of cocaine or morphine on one side of the maze and a shot of saline on the other side. While roaming freely, rats congregated more on the Oreo side for about as much time as they would on the drug side.
Researcher also measured for neuronal activity on the brain's pleasure center. The Oreos activated significantly more neurons than cocaine or morphine.
"These finding suggest that high fat/sugar foods of abuse trigger brain addictive processes to the same degree and lend support to the hypothesis that maladaptive eating behavior contributing to obesity can be compared to drug addiction," Schroeder's team wrote in a statement describing the study.
Schroeder is scheduled to present the findings next month at the Society For Neuroscience conference in San Diego, UPI reported.