Ice Cream as "addictive" as Drugs, says Study

A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has described that people can be addicted to certain foods like drugs. It can also be ice cream, from the dessert recipes.

Researchers at the Oregon Research Institute concluded that longings for dessert - ice cream in particular – were similar to those experienced by drug addicts.

The mechanism explained in the study is – overconsumption of high-fat or high-sugar foods is expected to change the normal functioning of the brain and makes it to think that the same food should be consumed more.

This process is seen with frequent drug use, where the more an individual uses the drug, the more he wants to have. The user repeats the consumption to avail the previous satisfaction level and in this way he becomes an addict to it.

The recent study reveals that like the drug, the same formula works in case of an ice cream also. The scientists choose 151 healthy weight teenagers, aged 14 to 16, for this study. The teenagers were given chocolate milkshakes made with Haagen Dazs ice cream.

Their brains were scanned with a Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) machine while being shown a picture of a milkshake, and then given a milkshake.

They found that all the teens wanted the real shake, but those who ate the most ice cream over the previous few weeks enjoyed it less.

Dr Kyle Burger explains that this is similar to drug addiction because despite wanting the milkshake, pleasure that should be sent to the brain was dulled, possibly due to low levels of dopamine being released in the brain.

The diet scientists prescribe for more research in this context but make it certain that food addiction is real.