Fatty Foods Addictive as Cocaine in Studies

(Bloomberg) Cupcakes may be addictive, just like cocaine.

A growing body of medical research at leading universities and government laboratories suggests that processed foods and sugary drinks made by the likes of PepsiCo Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) aren’t simply unhealthy. They can hijack the brain in ways that resemble addictions to cocaine, nicotine and other drugs.

“The data is so overwhelming the field has to accept it,” said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “We are finding tremendous overlap between drugs in the brain and food in the brain.”

The idea that food may be addictive was barely on scientists’ radar a decade ago. Now the field is heating up. Lab studies have found sugary drinks and fatty foods can produce addictive behavior in animals. Brain scans of obese people and compulsive eaters, meanwhile, reveal disturbances in brain reward circuits similar to those experienced by drug abusers. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-02/fatty-foods-addictive-as-cocaine-in-growing-body-of-science.html

this will deprive so many of their smug lecture fix.

Our brains are already wired to indulge in high-caloric, fatty foods from our hunter-gatherer days. It was a matter of survival back then. Except that most of us are no longer hunter-gatherers.

And our waistlines reflect that. :)

Go to rehab, junk addicts.

It's true. A day without fat is a day without pleasure.

(But I've got a BMI of 19, so I guess I can handle it.)

"The idea that food may be addictive was barely on scientists’ radar a decade ago." = 100% BS

We will never deal effectively with addictions by banning the substance people get addicted to because addiction is a lifestyle (not a substance). People get addicted to food, drugs, gambling, sex, power, anger, rage, video games, politics, etc.

Many people can use cocaine and not get addicted. Not sure how cocaine became the gold standard of addiction in the MSM, probably just because it sounds sensational.

We might as well say we have H20 addictions because we can't stop drinking it.