Oreos Are Addictive, Connecticut College Students Find

In the United States, and in an increasing number of countries around the world, poor people tend to be fat and wealthier people tend to be thin. In the US, high-fructose corn syrup, fortified white flour, and soybean oil are considered essential commodities so the government ensures they are available and cheap -- but no government agency ensures that poor people have a steady supply of yogurt with live cultures, chicken breast, or arugula.

As a result, Americans are almost (but not quite) the fattest people in the world.

Even worse, a group of undergraduate students at Connecticut College have found, cheap fast foods like Oreos are addictive.

The Experiment

Honohan and collaborators constructed a maze with two sides for lab rats to explore. When lab rats reached one side of the maze, they were rewarded with rice cakes. When lab rats reached the other side of the maze, they were rewarded with Oreos. The student researchers noted the amount of time the rats spent on each side of the maze.

The research team also repeated the experiment with different rewards, an injection of salt water when the lab rat reached one side of the maze, and an injection of cocaine or morphine when the rat reached the other. The researchers monitored that amount of time the rats spent seeking each reward. The undergraduate neurology team also gave the rats brain scans that measured the number of neurons in the brain's pleasure center, the nucleus accumbens, that were activated by eating Oreos.

The Results

The lab rats that had learned how to find Oreos spent the same amount of time on the cocaine/morphine side of the maze as those that settled for rice cakes. But when rats that had learned to eat Oreos were given cocaine, their brains "lit up" more than the brains of rats that had been conditioned to eat rice cakes. 

The researchers conclude that fat and sugar and salt (or chocolate cookies with a creme filling) not only have potent effects on the pleasure centers of the brain, they set up the consumer for addiction to some hard drugs, such as cocaine or heroin (which is functionally similar to morphine).

It Isn't Just Oreos That Are Addictive

The Connecticut College study adds to a growing body of evidence that people get hooked on sugar, fat, and salt. Of course, the purveyors of fast food already knew this. Since 1971, when the US government decided to pay farmers to grow vast amounts of corn as a matter of national security, food manufacturers have had an incentive to use low-cost high-fructose corn syrup in snack foods, and the low cost of the ingredients enables them to offer snacks cheap.

Add a little GMO soybean oil for the greasy component, and you have created an addictive concoction that keeps people coming back for more and more. Apparently you also set up people for addiction to higher-priced drugs like heroin.

So if you are fan of fast food, and you don't really have the money to eat right, what can you possibly do to keep from becoming even more addicted? Here are some suggestions:

• Especially if food is on sale, save it for later. People eat food sooner when they pay less for it. But if you buy a bunch of Oreos, or chips, or bean dip, or hot dogs to save money, put them in a cupboard or in the refrigerator or in the freezer (if freezing won't ruin them) at least for a day so you won't want to scaft them all down.

• If a food item comes with a bonus pack, it's probably relatively healthy for you. Food marketers know that consumers want price breaks on junk foods, but they want bonus packs for healthy foods. If a food item comes with a bonus pack, at least the manufacturer thinks it's good for you.

• Pay cash rather than using a credit card. Get cash on your card to pay with food, if necessary. People tend to pay cash for foods they know are healthy, but to buy junk food on credit.

• If you don't want your kids nagging you for junk food, try to cut back on TV. American children see an average of 40,000 TV commercials for food every year, 72% of them for foods that are high in sugar, fat, and salt, to which they become addicted.

• And don't eat junk food in front of the TV. When you eat in front of the TV, you have to eat longer to feel full, because your attention is on the program rather than on what you are eating.

It is hard to eat healthy on a budget in the USA. But you can at least shake addictions to fast food and junk food if you know how it controls you.