American scientists have proved that the sweet, sweet feeling we all get when we sink our teeth into a scoop of our favourite ice cream is, in-fact, as addictive as cocaine.
The study, conducted at the Oregon Research Institute, Eugene, shows that eating ice cream leaves us craving more in exactly the same way that taking the illicit drug leads users to crave it.
It also showed that, like cocaine use, the more often we eat ice cream the more we need to get ‘high’ on it as the brain’s response is changed through regular intake.
The findings come after a test conducted on 151 healthy teenagers, aged 14 – 16, in which the lucky participants were fed real chocolate milkshakes made with Häagen Dazs ice cream.
Their brains were scanned while being shown a picture of a milkshake before being given it, and while all the participants wanted the shake those who ate the most ice cream over the previous few weeks enjoyed it less.
Dr. Kyle Burger (insert joke here) who oversaw the experiment explained that this was the same reaction that a drug addict felt, because despite increased cravings, pleasure that should be sent to the brain was being blunted.
According to Dr. Burger, the case is the same for many other tasty, high-fat or high-sugar foods, which also leave us with a boom and bust feeling. Sadly, no such result is evident with salad, proving – once again – that healthy food tastes like shit.
By Rebecca Jones
Twitter: @RebeccaEJones
