The最新消息关于高脂，高糖食品（在这种情况下为Oreo Cookie）来自康涅狄格大学教授约瑟夫·施罗德（Joseph Schroeder）及其学生。他们声称Oreo Cookie可能像可卡因和吗啡一样对大鼠上瘾，并从中推断出肥胖症的流行部分是由于对垃圾食品的毒品样上瘾而引起的。
实际上，施罗德教授说：“我们的研究支持这样的理论，即高脂高糖食品以与药物一样的方式刺激大脑。”
Oreo Cookies: Plain, Dull, but Addictive?
Jamie Honohan, one of Professor Schroeder’s students, selected Oreos because they are America’s favorite cookie (and this undisputed fact shocks me because Oreos are what I call “fake” chocolate—an unexciting kind of cookie).
Honohan also remarks that high-fat, high-sugar foods “are heavily marketed in communities with lower socioeconomic statuses.” Obesity is more prevalent in such communities, but not because junk food is “heavily marketed” in those areas.
电视广告和杂志的含糖广告，肥大的食物是全国性的 - 在贫穷的社区中，它们比在10英里外的高档小镇上更“销售”？我发现这项研究的细节很奇怪。
The Study
Hungry rats were fed Oreos on one side of a maze. On the other side of the maze they were fed rice cakes. Rats love Oreos and don’t care much for rice cakes.
The next step was that the rats were allowed to hang out at either side of the maze—with no food. The students recorded the length of time the rats spent on the side where they’d been given the cookies, compared to the rice-cake side.
The experiment was repeated with a second group of rats. Everything was identical except what the rats were “fed.” In this second group, the rodents were given cocaine and morphine, which are addictive. On the other side of the maze they were given a saline solution.
结果
The Oreo rats hung out on the Oreo side of the maze for the same length of time that the drugged rats spent on the drug side of the maze. This result indicates, says the research team, that Oreos (or any high-sugar, high-fat food for that matter) are addictive.
I fail to see how preferring the cookie side of the maze indicates addiction. Whywouldn’t老鼠更喜欢在饼干方面闲逛吗？当您考虑它时，这种现象一直在人类中发生在不同程度上。
But let’s be more deliberate about it:Imagine you’re a guest in someone’s home and every time you’re in a particular chair, you’re offered the most delicious potato chips you’ve ever had—the kind that you just can’t stop eating.
Whenever you’re in another chair (assume both chairs yield equal comfort, have similar views, etc.), you’re offered a raw vegetable platter.
It won’t be long before you’ll be doing most of your sitting, if not all, in the potato-chip chair, even when you know your host won’t be offering any food. This does not mean you’re addicted to potato chips!
大脑活动
Nevertheless, Professor Schroeder also points out an additional component to the research: He and another student measured the expression ofc-fos, a protein in the pleasure center of the rodents’ brains.
This protein, says Professor Schroeder, indicates how many cells were “turned on” in a particular region of the brain in response to the Oreos or drugs. This doesn’t seem to prove addiction, even though the Oreos piped up many more neurons than did the cocaine or morphine.
If you (or a rat) enjoy something so much that it makes you spend time in the area where you’ve been given the substance, why would this mean you’re addicted?
A variation of this study should use an agent that cannot be ingested, such as something that yields tactile pleasure to the rats, or, for humans, maybe the test subjects’ favorite music, a tantalizing aroma, a shoulder massage, etc.
我敢打赌，老鼠和人们将花费相同的时间来暴露于这些愉快的刺激的地方，就像第二组老鼠和人类一样。我并不是说研究人员会得出结论，老鼠或人类沉迷于香气，声音或肩膀按摩。
Despite what appears to be a few flaws in this study, the premise of food addiction—or, at least, food and drugs causing similar brain activity—is supported by otherresearch。也许成瘾不是“或”的情况，而是连续的情况。
许多对饼干等特定食物的“食物成瘾”或“成瘾”的人都征服了这一点（致力于健康的饮食和运动），实际上继续吃罪恶的食物（例如，在每周的作弊日），但有限制。真正的瘾君子将迅速复发。这就是为什么酗酒者保持清醒的原因，再也不会再喝另一种饮料了。