[Previous entry: "cool..."] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Fun little toy...."]
07/28/2003 Entry: "What will they discover next...."
(via FoxNews) A study has found that rats like food that tastes good. They want to claim that fatty, sugary or salty food is adictive because its pleasurable to eat them....
Next they'll find that oxygen is addictive, after all, you get euphoric if you get too much and you pass out and possibly die if you try to quit....
"Just that taste of the fat will immediately release these substances into the brain and actually make us have an emotional response to the food," Kelley said.
Other studies conducted at Princeton University by Dr. Bartley G. Hoebel and colleagues, one of whom appeared in the June 2002 issue of Obesity Research, examined sugar addiction. The Obesity study found that "repeated, excessive intake of sugar" in lab rats "caused behavioral and neurochemical signs of opioid withdrawal," a state which was "similar to withdrawal from morphine or nicotine."
Self-proclaimed fast food addict Jim Smith, 41, of Indiana -- who is obese and had to cut back on his favorite Wendy's cheeseburgers and other junk food after he nearly died of congestive heart failure -- has no problem believing the implication of the Wisconsin research. Smith said he used to eat two to three hamburgers a day, but now consumes at most one or two a week."It's hard. I miss it," Smith said. "I've often wondered if it was addictive. I can't just have one -- I have to have two. Same with french fries."