Oreos More Addictive Than Cocaine? Study Shows Cookies Might Produce More Pleasure Than Coke In Rats

I have long known that processed sugars were not good for me, yet I have had no problem continuing to ingest insane amounts of junk food over the years. Just today, I was in a situation that would have sent me spiraling out of control just a few short weeks ago. For many years, I have worked jobs that

required me to be in the car most of the day. I never ate breakfast, but I would have my morning Mountain Dew. By around 11am, the beverage would be partially digested, leaving my stomach feeling like a gaping hole of hunger.

I remembered back when this sort of situation would leave me feeling absolutely powerless. Like I had no other option but to hit the closest drive thru. Not just that, but then I'd pull get up to the window to order and decide that i am so hungry, I can't JUST have the Double Quarter Pounder and large fries, I NEED to have a 10 pc nugget too, and a large Coke. The first bite tasted so amazing. The second bite, a little less amazing. By the time I was finished, I would have consumed around 3,000 calories in a single sitting. This was my life, every day.

Today I found myself out and about, I had already drank my breakfast smoothie, and my snack smoothie. I expected to be home by lunch, but ended up taking longer than expected. So now I am driving around many drive thru restaurants that used to be in my eyes the "only solution". Today. I was determined not to let the smell of french fries or cheeseburgers get the best of me. I did end up pulling into McDonald's, but I did not let my stomach tell me what I was going to be eating today.

I took my time, looked over the menu, and decided that I was going to feed my body what it NEEDED at the time, not what my brain told me sounded good at the time. I ended up getting a McWrap with grilled chicken, no dressing, just veggies. I had never had one of them before, and it was quite good, and only 330 calories.

I have finally learned my lesson. For far too long, I have been a victim of circumstance. You CAN choose to hit the drive thru, but you have to make up your mind that you won't just get what your brain thinks will taste good, you have to get what your body needs.

The food industry specifically manufactures food products that are highly addictive. They want us to eat more. Below is an article that I found that helps illustrate the point I just made.

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Oreos More Addictive Than Cocaine? Study Shows Cookies Might Produce More Pleasure Than Coke In Rats
By Simon McCormack
Posted: 10/18/2013 12:55 pm EDT  |  Updated: 10/18/2013 1:53 pm EDT


Put down that bag of Oreos and pick up that crack pipe. Just kidding -- please, please don't.

But there is evidence that, at least in one respect, Oreo cookies may be more addictive than cocaine.

As the Christian Science Monitor reports, researchers at Connecticut College designed a rat maze with Oreos on one side and rice cakes on the other. The rats spent a lot more time hanging out and eating the Oreos than feeding on the rice cakes.

In a similar test, the researchers also measured which side of the maze rats preferred when on one side they were offered injections of saline and on the other, there were injections of cocaine or morphine. The rats spent just as much time on the cocaine and morphine side of the maze as they did on the Oreo side in the other experiment.

In both experiments, researchers monitored brain activity in the rats, according to a press release on the findings.

They used immunohistochemistry to measure the expression of a protein called c-Fos, a marker of neuronal activation, in the nucleus accumbens, or the brain’s “pleasure center.”
The researchers found that "Oreos activated significantly more neurons" than cocaine.

"This correlated well with our behavioral results and lends support to the hypothesis that high-fat/high-sugar foods are addictive,” Joseph Schroeder, associate professor of psychology at Connecticut College, said.

Keith Humphreys, professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, told The Huffington Post he's skeptical of the study's findings.

"The cornerstone of scientific quality is peer-review," Humphreys said in an email to HuffPost. "This study hasn't been published in a peer-reviewed journal. It has not even been presented at a conference. All I know is that they put a press release making a series of claims based on a study, the details of which they have not shared with their colleagues. On principle, that makes me doubt their conclusions."

Humphreys also said there are limits to comparisons between food and drugs.

"There is no doubt that foods and drugs can produce activity in similar parts of the brain," Humphreys said. "However, addiction is about negative consequences such as overdose and death, and that's not parallel for drugs and food. If a heavy heroin user stops using heroin, he is better off. If a heavy eater stops eating, he dies."