Oreos Are as Addictive as Cocaine

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Oct 17, 6:44AM EDT

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Some good news for makers of cookies and candy. Recent research shows that Oreos are as addictive as cocaine. However, the companies may want to hold off celebrating. The data are based on the habits of lab rats. Still, an entire industry has reason to hope that people will pick sugary food over dangerous drugs.

According to the study by faculty and students at Connecticut College, which has never been considered a first-rate center of research:

In a study designed to shed light on the potential addictiveness of high-fat/ high-sugar foods, Joseph Schroeder, associate professor of psychology and director of the behavioral neuroscience program, and his students found rats formed an equally strong association between the pleasurable effects of eating Oreos and a specific environment as they did between cocaine or morphine and a specific environment. They also found that eating cookies activated more neurons in the brain’s “pleasure center” than exposure to drugs of abuse.

It may be that the high-fat measure could cause an eventual threat to big fast-food chains like McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) and Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM), which are already under siege to improve the quality of their menus.

If the study is confirmed, it will be terrible for the Nabisco arm of Mondelēz International Inc. (NASDAQ: MDLZ). Oreos are the best-selling cookie in America, according to “Food Processing”:

Among the first “interactive” foods, Oreos allow, in fact encourage, consumers to be creative when eating them. From dunking them in milk, twisting them apart, eating the creme first or slowly nibbling or quickly gobbling a handful, consumers can take ownership and make eating Oreos into a very individual creative experience.

Lab rats are not likely to be able to be so creative.

It is a jump from lab rats to humans in almost all laboratory studies of how foods and drugs affect humans. The hard data on the Oreo problem for people may be years away. However, to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.