Are Oreos more addicting than cocaine/morphine?

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Replies

  • tedrickp
    tedrickp Posts: 1,229 Member

    I struggle a lot with the comparison between drug addiction and food addiction. For the most part, what people cite as food addiction really is just a lack of will power and individuals are using the term "food addiction" as an excuse for their behavior. As an addict who lost my home, my children, my marriage, and my family, individuals who compare their lack of will power to addiction are almost offensive. I took the stance for a long time that food addiction doesn't exist. But I have met individuals on this website who have taken the lack of will power with food to the point of addiction, severely endangering their lives, losing their mobility and simultaneously their livelihood, and putting their families through hell. I can easily see how their stories mimic my own.

    This is exactly why I have a problem with the food addiction argument - because having worked with addicts I felt it diminished what they went through.

    Same reason i cringe when anyone compares certain current politicians to Hitler.

    But - the rest of that paragraph is interesting and makes me wonder if I am being a bit too harsh... As a super sized individual I obviously let my lack of will power around food negatively/dangerously effect my life...I never considered it an addiction though. The way you phrase it makes me think the line is more fine than I originally thought.
  • Possible_Infinity
    Possible_Infinity Posts: 83 Member
    Its probably because Oreo's are Vegan...

    They really are... :laugh:
  • ldrosophila
    ldrosophila Posts: 7,512 Member

    I struggle a lot with the comparison between drug addiction and food addiction. For the most part, what people cite as food addiction really is just a lack of will power and individuals are using the term "food addiction" as an excuse for their behavior. As an addict who lost my home, my children, my marriage, and my family, individuals who compare their lack of will power to addiction are almost offensive. I took the stance for a long time that food addiction doesn't exist. But I have met individuals on this website who have taken the lack of will power with food to the point of addiction, severely endangering their lives, losing their mobility and simultaneously their livelihood, and putting their families through hell. I can easily see how their stories mimic my own.

    This is exactly why I have a problem with the food addiction argument - because having worked with addicts I felt it diminished what they went through.

    Same reason i cringe when anyone compares certain current politicians to Hitler.

    But - the rest of that paragraph is interesting and makes me wonder if I am being a bit too harsh... As a super sized individual I obviously let my lack of will power around food negatively/dangerously effect my life...I never considered it an addiction though. The way you phrase it makes me think the line is more fine than I originally thought.

    sorry and I mean this as no offense, but I'm fascinated by someone who has worked very hard, lost a lot of weight and I assume fought against the negative compulsion to fall into old habits would have a difficult time seeing how food (like any substance) can turn into a tool of abuse?

    Maybe you fell into that category of super size under a different circumstance than myself? Very curious?
  • suerop
    suerop Posts: 8 Member
    It's easier to get hooked up with a bag of Oreos, so....... maybe?
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
    No, because the study never compared the rats preferences to oreos vs cocaine or morphine. It just showed they preferred oreos to rice cakes (who wouldn't?) and morphine or cocaine to saline.
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
    those rats are dumb as ****. has anyone had a better time under the influence of oreos than, um, the other stuff? I think not.

    Except they never presented them with the choice of oreos vs. the 'other stuff'.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    That study didn't show any such thing.

    What it did demonstrate, however, is that rats make better choices than do human junkies.

    Lol. This.

    this plus 2
  • magerum
    magerum Posts: 12,589 Member
    No, because the study never compared the rats preferences to oreos vs cocaine or morphine. It just showed they preferred oreos to rice cakes (who wouldn't?) and morphine or cocaine to saline.

    BBO_u9_CMAA0JvT.gif
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    I never sold my house for oreo's or offered to perform certain acts in return for them...so going with a NO on this one..
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,228 Member

    I struggle a lot with the comparison between drug addiction and food addiction. For the most part, what people cite as food addiction really is just a lack of will power and individuals are using the term "food addiction" as an excuse for their behavior. As an addict who lost my home, my children, my marriage, and my family, individuals who compare their lack of will power to addiction are almost offensive. I took the stance for a long time that food addiction doesn't exist. But I have met individuals on this website who have taken the lack of will power with food to the point of addiction, severely endangering their lives, losing their mobility and simultaneously their livelihood, and putting their families through hell. I can easily see how their stories mimic my own.

    This is exactly why I have a problem with the food addiction argument - because having worked with addicts I felt it diminished what they went through.

    Same reason i cringe when anyone compares certain current politicians to Hitler.

    But - the rest of that paragraph is interesting and makes me wonder if I am being a bit too harsh... As a super sized individual I obviously let my lack of will power around food negatively/dangerously effect my life...I never considered it an addiction though. The way you phrase it makes me think the line is more fine than I originally thought.

    This guy really changed the way I look at the concept of food addiction.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com//EdDavenport
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
    Pretty sure it has nothing to do specifically with Oreos and EVERYTHING to do with SUGAR......

    OMG yes. THE SUGAR!!!
  • ryry_
    ryry_ Posts: 4,966 Member
    No, because the study never compared the rats preferences to oreos vs cocaine or morphine. It just showed they preferred oreos to rice cakes (who wouldn't?) and morphine or cocaine to saline.

    BBO_u9_CMAA0JvT.gif

    Thank you magerum... i am still using ie right now...am i at risk?
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    This might seem like blasphemy, but I don't really like Oreos. Unless they're crumbled in ice cream cake. :love:

    I like the super-cheap Oreo-knockoff cookies better (I call them Pooreos) especially the white and chocolate ones. But they don't come anywhere near fresh, hot chocolate chip or Snickerdoodles.
    off with your head blasphemer!!

    just kidding..

    Oreos and cream ice cream is the BOMB!!!
  • ryry_
    ryry_ Posts: 4,966 Member
    This might seem like blasphemy, but I don't really like Oreos. Unless they're crumbled in ice cream cake. :love:

    I like the super-cheap Oreo-knockoff cookies better (I call them Pooreos) especially the white and chocolate ones. But they don't come anywhere near fresh, hot chocolate chip or Snickerdoodles.
    off with your head blasphemer!!

    just kidding..

    Oreos and cream ice cream is the BOMB!!!

    *High Five*
  • Lindaspencer
    Lindaspencer Posts: 226 Member
    I mean. I've never tried cocaine or morphine because they seem like they aren't up my alley, but having done Oreos I'm gonna say they ruined my life. I was lying to my family and stealing crap to feed my addiction within a year.

    Just don't go down that path my friends.

    LOL - thanks for the laugh :)
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
    (I'm a neuroscientist who has worked with a rat model of cocaine addiction and relapse.)

    Rats will work harder for sugar or similar (chocolate, saccharin) than for cocaine. We have an ongoing joke that rats like chocolate better than cocaine, but it's actually true to the point that it screws up our studies if someone leaves chocolate pellets in the training boxes when we're trying to study cocaine self-administration. It's funny that some of you think that this means that rats make better choices than humans! As if rats are aware that "drugs are bad"?

    The physical withdrawal from some drugs (especially heroin/morphine) is much worse than any physical effects of quitting sugar, which is what a lot of you are getting at in your comments, but sugar does have a higher reward value in that animals will work harder for it and will prefer it to various drugs of abuse when given a choice.

    Those of you who are saying that heroin addicts do extreme things to get it and people don't do that to get sugar-sugar is legal, cheap, and everywhere. Not a fair comparison.

    No one sits around all day eating oreos until their life falls apart around them. There have been no instances back when sugar was a rare commodity (that I know of) where people killed so they could get their sugar fix. People who are seriously addicted to cocaine and heroin neglect to take care of themselves and that includes forgetting to eat. Even oreos.

    AND. Rats are not homo sapiens. But thanks for the insight into the rat studies! :drinker:
  • highervibes
    highervibes Posts: 2,219 Member
    I think all addictions begin with a lack of self control, even to cocaine and alcohol. I know a lot of people who can recreationally use both and are not addicted. I suppose you can get additcted to anything if you frequently decide not to exercise self control.
  • BlueBombers
    BlueBombers Posts: 4,064 Member
    In my case, potato chips are more addicting.....
  • keepgoing4health
    keepgoing4health Posts: 1
    Maybe it depends on the person and how their brain reacts to the stuff. i had a problem with alcohol. would drink until I passed out. I got over that by myself. Before that I smoked about a pack a day. also had a bout with anorexia, then bulimia. I quit these bad habits on my own and without too much struggle. But this damn junk food habit is kicking my *kitten*. I lie and steal to get the stuff. I feel so much shame but I the urge to get the next fix is overwhelming. Why was alcohol and cigs so much easier to overcome?
  • Tiff050709
    Tiff050709 Posts: 497 Member
    tumblr_me3ruowzSb1ro2d43.gif

    Is this from Family Guy? Seems familiar to me...
    Soo funny.
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
    If sugar is addictive, how do you explain the fact that millions or billions of people can eat it occasionally and not have any withdrawal symptoms when they don't eat any?

    Sugar is not addictive. Some people might display compulsive eating behaviors, and may have a preference for sugary foods, but that doesn't mean it's addictive.

    same way millions of people responsibly enjoy drinking alcohol and are completely functional... and are not alcoholics- or even FUNCTIONAL alcoholics.

    I didn't say anything about being functional while on it.

    I asked about withdrawal. Alcohol withdrawal is a thing. Sugar withdrawal is not.

    With rats it is. They exhibit depressive symptoms when sugar withdrawn after they have been allowed to become accustomed to it. Make of it what you will.
  • WDEvy
    WDEvy Posts: 814 Member
    I'm gonna guess not since they're absolutely disgusting.
  • magerum
    magerum Posts: 12,589 Member
    tumblr_me3ruowzSb1ro2d43.gif

    Is this from Family Guy? Seems familiar to me...
    Soo funny.

    It is

    ETA:

    Both, from Family Guy and funny.
  • Pinkranger626
    Pinkranger626 Posts: 460 Member
    Why stop at oreos? If we're going to start naming names lets add Doritos and French Fries to the list!! I know for me, If I had open access to oreos, doritos or french fries I would eat until I was physically ill.... and not because I set out to do so. When I was younger my grandmother would keep doritos in the house for when I visited... I would eat an ENTIRE bag of doritos and then go up for some oreos, it's like th stop, you're full switch in my body got stuck with those products. Which is why i just don't buy them and I don't allow myself to eat them if they're not in an individual serving style container. I can make myself stop and move away... but if I'm at a party and they're out in a bowl or something I find myself in front of the bowl at least a few more times before they're gone. Luckily for me, I now can't eat even half of that amount before I feel sick so I guess I sort of created my own stop button...
  • sloth3toes
    sloth3toes Posts: 2,212 Member
    Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage
    Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage

    If someone put me in a maze, with unlimited access to oreos and / or cocaine.... I'd eat / snort it all too. Because.... once you're in that maze.... there's only one way you're coming out.
  • da_bears10089
    da_bears10089 Posts: 1,791 Member
    "No, I HAVE to eat all the Oreos. Didn't you hear they are like meth?"

    Stop giving people excuses to be fat.
  • ryry_
    ryry_ Posts: 4,966 Member
    Thanks a lot OP. I've been Oreo clean for 10 years...months...days and silly comparisons of Oreo's and actual harmful drugs is my trigger. I just bought a sleeve (what we call it on the street) and I can't stop myself.
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,228 Member
    (I'm a neuroscientist who has worked with a rat model of cocaine addiction and relapse.)

    Rats will work harder for sugar or similar (chocolate, saccharin) than for cocaine. We have an ongoing joke that rats like chocolate better than cocaine, but it's actually true to the point that it screws up our studies if someone leaves chocolate pellets in the training boxes when we're trying to study cocaine self-administration. It's funny that some of you think that this means that rats make better choices than humans! As if rats are aware that "drugs are bad"?

    The physical withdrawal from some drugs (especially heroin/morphine) is much worse than any physical effects of quitting sugar, which is what a lot of you are getting at in your comments, but sugar does have a higher reward value in that animals will work harder for it and will prefer it to various drugs of abuse when given a choice.

    Those of you who are saying that heroin addicts do extreme things to get it and people don't do that to get sugar-sugar is legal, cheap, and everywhere. Not a fair comparison.

    I think you are missing a very important point that sugar is actually food whereas cocaine is not. It is something that our bodies require, and it just so happens to appeal to us more than other foods. The rats were more interested in sugar than cocaine because their bodies need it as an energy source. Cocaine is not something are bodies are instinctually programmed to consume and enjoy. Those rats were familiar with sweet... they had to be introduced to cocaine.
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
    Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage
    Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage

    If someone put me in a maze, with unlimited access to oreos and / or cocaine.... I'd eat / snort it all too. Because.... once you're in that maze.... there's only one way you're coming out.

    Excellent point! Free oreos for lab rats! Free oreos for lab rats!
  • DatMurse
    DatMurse Posts: 1,501 Member
    Thanks a lot OP. I've been Oreo clean for 10 years...months...days and silly comparisons of Oreo's and actual harmful drugs is my trigger. I just bought a sleeve (what we call it on the street) and I can't stop myself.

    I think its about time for me to down a container of oreos

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