Oreos Found to Be As Addictive As Cocaine!

 

 

 Published on Oct 6, 2013

We've heard about the dangers of eating too much fat or salt. But there has never been a warning about sugar on our food labels - despite emerging research that suggests the sweet stuff is making more of us fat and sick.

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/episodes/2013...


 

Oreos Found to Be As Addictive As Cocaine!

• By Dr. Mercola
  Mercola.com, October 30, 2013
  Straight to the Source
  
  

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When you eat refined processed sugars, they trigger production of your brain's natural opioids -- a key ingredient in the addiction process. 

Your brain essentially becomes addicted to stimulating the release of its own opioids as it would to morphine or heroin.

This addictive nature of sugar and processed food has again been confirmed by a psychology professor and a team of students at the College of Connecticut,1, 2 who showed that Oreo cookies are just as addictive as cocaine or morphine.

The study, which was designed to investigate the potential addictiveness of high-fat/high-sugar foods, also found that eating Oreos activated more neurons in the rat brain's pleasure center than exposure to illicit drugs did. According to professor Schroeder:

"Our research supports the theory that high-fat/ high-sugar foods stimulate the brain in the same way that drugs do. It may explain why some people can't resist these foods despite the fact that they know they are bad for them."

The idea for the study originated with neuroscience major Jamie Honohan, who wanted to know how the high prevalence of junk foods in low-income neighborhoods might contribute to the obesity epidemic.     

Story at-a-glance

• When you eat sugar it triggers the production of your brain's natural opioids -- a key factor in addiction. Your brain essentially becomes addicted to the sugar-induced opioid release, not unlike addictions to morphine or heroin
• Like many types of addictions, sugar addiction can be deadly. Evidence is mounting that sugar is a primary contributing factor not only in obesity and diabetes, but other chronic degenerative diseases such as cancer
• Sugar really is “the most unhappy of pleasures,” because although it gives you a moment’s pleasure, the more you eat, the more you crave, with the bitter and inevitable result that it damages your health

Links: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_28659.cfm

 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/03/10/the-most-unhappy-of-pleasures-this-is-your-brain-on-sugar.aspx


 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/03/21/addictive-junk-food.aspx

The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food