Ice cream can trigger the same regions in the brain that are activated with drugs. (Credit: Thinkstock)Keep reaching for the Ben & Jerry's, despite your darndest intentions to stay away? New research claims that your ice-cream addiction might be real.
"As far as our brain's wiring is concerned: pleasure is pleasure. With drugs, over time, addicts receive less and less pleasure from the same amount. They then crave more of the drug to reach the same pleasure point that they remember experiencing before," writes Tara Meyer for 9news.
Researchers at the Oregon Research Institute found that just as drug users become less and less satisfied with each hit — yet experience increased cravings — childrens' brains "down regulates reward processes" when they overeat the sweet treat.
In the study, researchers scanned 151 adolescents' brains while showing them a carton of a chocolate Häagen Dazs milkshake. After measuring their cravings, they gave the same kids a milkshake to consume, again, while being scanned.
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"The kids who'd reported eating the most ice cream over the past few weeks registered lower activity in their reward centers from the milkshake, meaning they didn't enjoy its creamy deliciousness as much," reports Jezebel's Cassie Murdoch.
The researchers couldn't use hard ice cream in the trial, as solid ice isn't permitted in an fMRI.
Researcher Kyle S. Buger speculated that the overconsumption/unsatisfied cycle could be your brain "continually trying to match the earlier experience," just as drug users try to recapture that initial high.
So is ice cream really addictive? Maybe.
Burger concedes that "energy-dense food, high sugar food, can elicit neural responses during consumption that parallel those seen in drug addiction. So it has addictive-like properties."
Until we know more, it's probably best to adhere to portion-control and moderation rules. (Yes, you can even eat ice cream and lose weight!)
Speak up, food junkies. What foods do you find impossible to resist?
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