New study claims Oreos as addictive as cocaine

New study claims Oreos as addictive as cocaine

(Photo credit: Bob MAcDonnell, courtesy of Connecticut College)


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NEW LONDON, Conn — What’s in the middle? The white stuff and, according to a new studyfrom neuroscience students at Connecticut College, something more addictive than cocaine and morphine.

Jaime Honohan is a neuroscience major at Connecticut College. Honohan headed up the study, along with a team of fellow students and professors. The group used lab rats to test the addictiveness of high-sugar/high-fat foods.

Her advising professor, Joseph Schroeder, told the Connecticut College News the team found the rats were just as likely to go for the black and white cookies, in a controlled environment, as they were likely to go for addictive drugs like morphine and cocaine.

“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.”

Honohan told the school’s newspaper she was interested in discovering more about the psychology behind the obesity crisis in the United States.

“My research interests stemmed from a curiosity for studying human behavior and our motivations when it comes to food,” Honohan said. “We chose Oreos not only because they are America’s favorite cookie, and highly palatable to rats, but also because products containing high amounts of fat and sugar are heavily marketed in communities with lower socioeconomic statuses.”

To conduct the study, the researchers put Oreos on one side of a maze and used rice cakes as a control on the other. They monitored the time the rats spent on each side of the maze and recorded the results.

Joseph Schroeder (left), associate professor of psychology and director 
of the behavioral neuroscience program at Connecticut College, and 
Lauren Cameron (right), a senior at Connecticut College and student 
researcher in Schroeder's lab, found that in lab rats, eating Oreos 
activated more neurons in the brain's "pleasure center" than exposure 
to drugs of abuse. Photo by Bob MacDonnell, courtesy of Connecticut 
College.
Joseph Schroeder (left), associate professor of psychology and director of the behavioral neuroscience program at Connecticut College, and Lauren Cameron (right), a senior at Connecticut College and student researcher in Schroeder's lab, found that in lab rats, eating Oreos activated more neurons in the brain's "pleasure center" than exposure to drugs of abuse. Photo by Bob MacDonnell, courtesy of Connecticut College.

Honohan and her fellow researchers then injected rats with either cocaine or morphine on one side of the maze and the injected them with saline on the other. The times each rat spent on each side following the injection were then recorded.

According to the Connecticut College News, Professor Schroeder is licensed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to purchase and use controlled substances for research.

The group found that rats would spend as much time on the side of the maze with the Oreos as they would on the side where they were given addictive drugs.

Honohan said the data point to the fact that sugary foods set off the rats’ "pleasure center" in the same way the addictive drugs did.

In fact, a summer continuance of the project, lead by neuroscience student Lauren Cameron, lead researcher to conclude that the Oreos set off significantly more neurons in the brain than did the cocaine or the morphine.

“This correlated well with our behavioral results and lends support to the hypothesis that high-fat/ high-sugar foods are addictive,” said Schroeder.

Not everyone is convinced about the study's purported conclusions. Carl Erickson, director of the University of Texas' Addiction Science Research and Education Center told Vice News he's not only skeptical of the conclusions, he's downright upset.

"I think that a study like this can be devastating with respect to public understanding of what addiction is and what it's not," Erickson said. "First of all, there's no science behind food being addicting in spite of what general public feels. Reporters often publish this sensationalism trying to get people to think you can be addicted to lingerie, to food, to a cell phone, to the tanning booth."


I think that a study like this can be devastating with respect to public understanding of what addiction is and what it's not.

–Carl Erickson


Erickson said the problem rests with the use of the word "addiction". An addiction, he said, is a mental disease. Eating too many Oreos may make you sick, it may even make you fat, but there's no way the effect will ever be the same as taking a hit of cocaine.

"Dependency is essentially when you can't stop using the drug without help," he said. "Preferring Oreos over rice cakes isn't a brain disease."

At the end of the day, Erickson said, it's a matter of correctly reading the data. Saying something is "as addictive as cocaine" is catchy, he said, but backing up the claim with accurate data is essential for public education.

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Robynn Garfield

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