Researchers at Connecticut College contend that “America’s favorite cookie” is just as addictive as cocaine or morphine. Professor Joseph Schroeder and his team of researchers found that rats formed an equally powerful 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 discovered that eating Oreos triggered more neurons in the brain’s “pleasure center” than exposure to the aforementioned drugs.

“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.”

Schroeder and his student researchers were motivated by a concern for foods with high quantities of fat and sugar and how these products are marketed to Americans.

“My research interests stemmed from a curiosity for studying human behavior and our motivations when it comes to food,” said Jamie Honohan, a student in Connecticut College’s Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy. “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 test the addictiveness of Oreos, the researchers determined the link between “drug” and environment. On one side of a maze, they gave rats Oreos and on the other side, they gave them rice cakes. Then, they allowed the rats to determine on which side of the maze they wanted to spend their time and measured how long they spent on the side where they were fed Oreos.

They compared the findings from the Oreo and rice cake test with the findings from rats that were injected with cocaine or morphine on one side of the maze and saline on the other side. The data showed that the rats conditioned with Oreos spent as much time on the “drug” side of the maze as the rats conditioned with cocaine or morphine.

Schroeder and his students turned to immunohistochemistry to measure the expression of c-Fos, a marker of neuronal activation in 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,” Schroeder noted.

They found that “America’s favorite cookie” triggered significantly more neurons than cocaine or morphine.

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

“Even though we associate significant health hazards in taking drugs like cocaine and morphine, high-fat/ high-sugar foods may present even more of a danger because of their accessibility and affordability,” Honohan added.

According to Kraft Foods, the Oreo was born in 1912, which just happens to be the same year that the South Pole was discovered and the Titanic sank. Interestingly, the first Oreo cookie was sold in Hoboken, New Jersey, where “America’s favorite cookie” was initially packaged in bulk tins and sold by weight. Grocers paid $0.30 cents/lb.

Are you addicted to Oreos? Sound off in the comments section.