14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists claim to have finally figured out why most people cannot get enough of Oreos. Long story short, they say that, according to evidence at hand, these chocolate cookies are as addictive as cocaine.
Neuroscientist Joseph Schroeder at the Connecticut College in New London, US, says that, while carrying out a series of experiments on mice, he and his colleagues found that these cookies activate the same brain regions that have been previously documented to be toyed with by cocaine.
Specifically, it appears that neurons in the so-called pleasure center of the brain fired up whenever the rodents were given some Oreos to gulp down, Daily Mail reports.
The researchers suspect that these findings also hold true in the case of humans, and that this is why just one cookie is never enough.
“Our research supports the theory that high-fat and high-sugar foods stimulate the brain in the same way that drugs do. That may be one reason people have trouble staying away from them and it may be contributing to the obesity epidemic,” researcher Joseph Schroeder reportedly said in a statement.
“[The results] lend support to the hypothesis that maladaptive eating behaviors contributing to obesity can be compared to drug addiction,” he added.