Obesity Epidemic Tied to Oreos?
You can’t go a day without hearing about the obesity epidemic and the fact that Americans tend to struggle with their weight because of a plethora of high-calorie, high-fat food. But what if individuals aren’t necessarily completely to blame for their penchant for eating junk foods? What if the foods we eat trigger us to eat in particular ways? It’s true, say some scientists studying lab rats and their response to Oreo cookies.
Rats Can’t Get Enough of the Creamy Center
Joseph Schroeder, a professor of neuroscience at Connecticut College conducted a study with lab rats and Oreos and found that the pleasure centers of the rats’ brains lit up when consuming the sugary treats. In fact, the neurons in the pleasure center were activated even more than they were by cocaine. The rats were placed in a maze with rice cakes at one end and Oreos in a separate area and were given a choice of where they would like to hang out. Naturally, the rats chose the Oreos over the rice cakes, just like most humans. Then, in a second part of the experiment, the researchers put the rats in another maze and injected them with either saline solution at one end or injections of cocaine or morphine at a different end. The rats also chose the cocaine or morphine injections more than the saline injections. The results also showed that the rats chose the Oreos as frequently as they chose the cocaine or morphine injections, demonstrating the power of high-fat/high-sugar foods.
Implications for Obesity Epidemic
Dr. Schroeder says that the results of his experiment suggest that high-fat/high-sugar foods have as much addictive power in the brain as drugs and that perhaps overeating should be treated as an addiction. He says he hasn’t touched an Oreo since completing the experiment and doesn’t intend to any time soon.
