I walked into the grocery store yesterday and almost lost it.

I was hungry after a big workout. The first thing I saw was food filled with sugar. The second thing I saw was food filled with sugar. The third thing? You guessed it.

In a world filled with attention grabbing headlines, I want avoid hyperbole and get down to the useful information.

You may have seen the 'Oreos are as addictive as cocaine headline' click-baiting headline. While the studies did happen and they have validity, there are a few clarifiers needed. They didn't compare Oreos to cocaine. They compared the way rats react to Oreo's versus something like a rice cake, and then compared that to how other rats reacted to cocaine versus something that wasn't cocaine. It's not a big surprise that they like Oreo's the same way they liked cocaine, if not more.

However, the pleasure centers the cocaine triggers can be similar to the way the brain lights up when we eat something sweet and delicious like an Oreo. And, walking by Ho-Ho's when I was hungry yesterday, I felt it.

Read more about that study here.

Overall, this research has revealed that sugar and sweet reward can not only substitute to addictive drugs, like cocaine, but can even be more rewarding and attractive. At the neurobiological level, the neural substrates of sugar and sweet reward appear to be more robust than those of cocaine (i.e., more resistant to functional failures), possibly reflecting past selective evolutionary pressures for seeking and taking foods high in sugar and calories.

SUMMARY:

The biological robustness in the neural substrates of sugar and sweet reward may be sufficient to explain why many people can have difficultly to control the consumption of foods high in sugar when continuously exposed to them.

These foods can make our brains react in similar ways to the world's most dangerous drugs. On top of that, they offer little or no nutritional value. In fact they can hurt us as much or more than actually using cocaine. Yet, they are the most available foods, as they are in our face when we walk into and out of just about every store in America.

Then there is the 'stomach bacteria' that can drive the addictive feeling. When we have too much bad bacteria in our stomach and digestive tract, it can cause us to want more sugary foods. This next video explains how good vs. bad bacteria work in our body. Some scientists and doctors are starting to believe that bad bacteria and excess insulin can cause cravings for more of the foods that create more bad bacteria and excess insulin. So, the more you eat, the more you want.

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