Student-faculty research shows Oreos are just as addictive as drugs in lab rats

[alp227]

Connecticut College students and a professor of neuroscience have found “America’s favorite cookie” is just as addictive as cocaine – at least for lab rats. And just like most humans, rats go for the middle first.

In a study designed to shed light on the potential addictiveness of high-fat/ high-sugar foods, Professor Joseph Schroeder and his students found rats formed an equally strong association between the pleasurable effects of eating Oreos and a specific environment as they did between cocaine or morphine and a specific environment. They also found that eating cookies activated more neurons in the brain’s “pleasure center” than exposure to drugs of abuse.

“Our research supports the theory that high-fat/ high-sugar foods stimulate the brain in the same way that drugs do,” Schroeder said. “It may explain why some people can’t resist these foods despite the fact that they know they are bad for them.”

full: http://www.conncoll.edu/news/news-archive/2013/student-faculty-research-shows-oreos-are-just-as-addictive-as-drugs-in-lab-rats-.htm#.Ul7Pyz-YcUw

[PoliticAverse]

1. Would people pay $100 to snort the cream off one? n/t

[darkangel218]

2. I bet they ate a lot of oreos during this "study".

Hypocrites

[Agnosticsherbet]

3. I never liked Oreos as a kid. If it is Ice Cream, I'm there. But Oreos, not for me. n/t

[frazzled]

4. Didn't work that way in my house

A couple of decades ago, my second child came down with chickenpox, and we'd already been in quarantine with the first. Everyone was getting bored and cranky, including me. Mr. Frazzled said: "You've got it all wrong; don't try to think up fun things to do. Turn on the TV, let him watch whatever, and go get a bag of Oreos at the store and let them pig out."

Well, I did. And the bag of Oreos contained a game card, which my eldest rubbed off. We'd won a year's supply of Oreos. (Only thing I've ever won in my life--something I didn't even want.) My kids thought they'd won the lottery.

Well, the cookies were to come quarterly--a dozen bags or so delivered in a big box. After eating the first bag of the first box, suddenly the interest waned. Nobody wanted them anymore. They started to taste yucky. I tried to give them away to neighbors. No takers. I started to take them to the food pantry, but my daughter protested it was awful to dump junk food that nobody wanted onto poor people. I took them to the food shelf anyway. Along with the next three deliveries of Oreos.

We did not become addicted to Oreos. Getting them cured us of ever wanting an Oreo ever again.

It was a good prize in the end, I guess.