In a recent study done by faculty and students at Connecticut College, it was discovered that Oreos- aka Milk's Favorite Cookie- are as addicting as cocaine.
At least… to rats.
The idea was to investigate how addictive high-fat and high-sugar foods can be, so as to find a reason to explain the obesity epidemic. They did this by setting up a maze (of course, what's a psychological experiment with rats if there isn't a maze?) and having an Oreo at one end and a rice cake at the other. Almost every time, the rats went to the Oreos. And surprisingly enough, much like many humans, they even ate the creamy middle first.
They then compared their findings to another experiment, where they set up another maze, and gave the rats shots of cocaine on one end, and shots of saline on the other. The rats went to the cocaine side more times than not.
When they compared the results, they found that the rats spent about as much time on the Oreo side as the other rats did on the cocaine side. Conclusion? Rats are cocaine addicts. And Oreos are as addicting as cocaine.
Both the cookie and the cocaine caused neuron activity in the "pleasure center" of the rat's brain, which could help explain why people like a) cocaine, and b) fatty and high sugar foods. The rat's brain is literally encouraging it to eat fatty foods- because it makes it happy. In fact, the Oreos activated more neurons than the cocaine did. If a rat's brain is doing this, who's to say that a human's brain won't do the same thing?
So really, fatty foods like Oreos are almost as dangerous as cocaine. They're widely available, and inexpensive. You can go to Wal-Mart and buy a package of Oreos for $2.99. Cocaine isn't nearly as easy to get, I'd imagine. Or as cheap. And Oreos can cause obesity which can lead to a whole bunch of health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart failure.
Seeing as this experiment was done on rats and not humans (that'd be unethical), you can't technically draw too many conclusions from it yet. It's only a preliminary finding. But seeing as it's been done in the past, I'd say you can make the comparison anyways. If rats are equally addicted to Oreos and cocaine, humans probably will be too.
The suggestions it makes are highly concerning. People really like Oreos. Oreos are potentially as dangerous as cocaine. What could this mean for the world as we know it? I'd say the early onset of the apocalypse.
