No, Oreos Aren't As Addictive As Cocaine

Daniel_Stuckey writes "If you give a mouse a cookie, you can spend all day following it around the house while it wants to do a bunch of tedious activities. Or, you can trap it in a box, keep feeding it cookies, and then make the outrageous claim that Oreos are as addictive as cocaine. Students at Connecticut College opted for the second option, and the consequences that ensued were much more annoying than making some arts and crafts with a darn mouse. Fox News reported that a 'College study finds Oreo cookies are as addictive as drugs,' Forbes explained 'Why Your Brain Treats Oreos Like a Drug,' and a ton of other sites ran with the story as well. Here's how the experiment, which has not been peer reviewed and has not been presented yet, went down. Mice were placed in a maze, with one end holding an Oreo and the other end holding a rice cake. The mice, without fail, decided to eat the Oreo over the rice cake, proving once and for all that mice like cookies better than tasteless discs with a styrofoamy texture."

Comments

Sounds kinda like the Rat Park study

[mayko]

Seems reasonable that when you lock an animal (including humans) in a shitty little box it's going to over indulge in activities that work on the pleasure centers of the brain. However, given freedom and a wide range of stimuli it might be less susceptible to addiction as we have defined it. See the controversial Rat Park study (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park) which showed evidence that when researchers gave lab rats a suitable and pleasurable living environment opiates were no longer addictive.

Stopped reading at

[sl4shd0rk]

..Fox News

"As addictive as drugs"

[bradgoodman]

I pushed the "stupid" button as soon as I read that. You can't just compare something to "drugs" - because different drugs work differently - and have differing levels of addictive qualities for very different reasons. For example, diploids (like Heroin) jack with your dopamine levels and are highly addictive, whereas stimulants (like cocaine) or depressants (like alcohol) can have very different affects in different people due to things like genetic factors, and mechanisms for ADD (which affect how stimulants affect you) - but in general are less addictive. Then there are things like tobacco that aren't "drugs" - but are also highly addictive.

So in other words...WTF??

(P.S. I'm not really educated in any of this kind of stuff and don't really know what I'm talking about - so don't bother correcting me)

Re:11 parts sugar, 89 parts lard

[ArcadeMan]

It cannot be lard as Oreo cookies are one of the very rare commercially-made treat that also happens to be vegan except maybe the white sugar in it, if you're an extreme vegan.

Re:Cookies

[bobbied]

As an American, I'm going to have to agree with you... That "processed cheese spread" stuff is pretty vile stuff, but it keeps without refrigeration. Most of us on this side of the pond don't quite "get" that European food thing. Especially English food. Some of it sounds pretty bad to us.

I tried a lot of different stuff when on a trip to Manchester and while some of it was not appealing to me, I did find much to like in my week's stay. I found some incredible Indian food that I've never been able to match here in the states and one Oriental place we ate at was great too. The traditional "fish and chips" with the malt vinegar was worth eating more than once too. Some of the beef dishes I tried left me disappointed, but I figured that was more about farming practices and less about the dish itself. The only real problem was the tea habit I started. I've found that good tea is simply not available at restaurants here and buying it for home can get expensive, but I'm hooked on the stuff so I pay though the nose for it. Makes me understand the "Boston Tea Party" thing that started the rebellion a bit better.

So... I'm going to apologize for the AC who has obviously no sense of adventure and likely has no culinary experience with much more than macaroni and cheese from a box and bologna sandwiches...

Re:Cookies

[interval1066]

Why do I have to be specific about treacle? You did a good job of generalizing a bunch of American crap, I'm having just as much fun generalizing British crap. You make a broad claim, get a broad retort. I'm not gonna drill it down for ya, you can do the hard work. Blood pudding is a gross item, anyway you look at it. I'm tossing it in because it exists, weather or not if fits in your "category". And the package of ccb's I had once said just that; "Clotted Cream Biscuits". Now step off ya limey bastard.