America's favorite cookies - Oreos are just as addictive as drugs, researchers from Connecticut College found.
Drug addiction is a major cause for concern in the United States. Now, researchers from Connecticut College have found something else to worry about. According to the findings of a new study done by the researchers, Oreos, dubbed as America's favorite cookies, are just as addictive as drugs, especially cocaine. The study was conducted as an attempt to understand the addictiveness to high fat and high sugar foods.
The study, which was conducted on rats, revealed that rodents get the same pleasurable effects from eating Oreos as they do when using cocaine or morphine. In fact, Oreos were found to activate 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," Professor Joseph Schroeder said. "It may explain why some people can't resist these foods despite the fact that they know they are bad for them."
Oreos and rice cakes were placed on two sides of a maze. Researchers then gave the rats an option to choose which side of the maze they wanted to be and for how long. The results of both sides were measured against results of another experiment where rats on one side of the maze were given an injection of cocaine or morphine while rats on the other side of the maze were given a shot of saline.
Researchers found that rats conditioned with Oreos spent the same time on the "drug" side of the maze as rats conditioned with cocaine or morphine. They also 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."
"It basically tells us how many cells were turned on in a specific region of the brain in response to the drugs or Oreos," said Schroeder.
The findings of the study confirmed previous beliefs that high fat and high sugar foods are addictive. Although insignificant to the study, another interesting discovery made by researchers was the way rats chose to eat the Oreos. Similar to human, rats attacked the middle of the cookie first. They broke the cookie so that the middle cream was accessible and started nibbling on that.
Coming back to the findings of the study, authors revealed that the new discovery can prove to be a problem for the public. Though the use of cocaine is associated with many health hazards, addiction to high fat and high sugar foods can be even more dangerous. It is also an even bigger public health concern because of the availability and affordability of such food.
Previous studies have already established that high fat and high sugar foods are the number one cause of obesity, which is also a serious concern in the United States. More than 35 percent of the American population is obese. The country spends more than $150 million on medical care for diseases caused due to this disorder. The epidemic has become so large in the United States and the consequences so severe that the American Medical Association was forced to declare obesity a disease.
