We’ve all been there. We start off with a bowl of ice cream with only 2 scoops. Thirty minutes later we’ve broken out the carton and are going ham on some dulce de leche.
Afterwards, when you’re left with a numb mouth and an empty carton, you ask yourself, “How did I let myself do that?” Well, guess what?
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University of Michigan recently perfomed a study and found that comfort foods like ice cream, chocolate, french fries, and pizza are actually addictive. Meaning, every food that makes our world go ’round can turn us into straight junkies.
When we eat these foods high in carbs and sugar, our brain receives the same reward-centered message that it does when taking cocaine.
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They’ve been conducting human studies on this topic and the findings are insane. They found that some of the participants ended up with food dependency, resulting in withdrawals similar to a drug addiction.
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The study found that participants’ dependency issues were even worse when the foods were highly processed. In comparison, when they tested foods like salmon and brown rice (all that unprocessed healthy stuff), there were no addictive traits found. Shocker.
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With obesity being a pretty common issue in our country, this study could change nutrition guidelines and affect how certain foods are marketed to consumers. AKA, there might be real consequences for the the Taco Bells and Pizza Huts of the world.
Although this news is slightly devastating, there is still a positive here. We can still enjoy our cookies, our pizza, and our fries. However, instead of rolling up to the drive-thru for dinner, we can go to our local grocer, get all our ingredients, and make these things from scratch.
You know, there was a world at one point without McDonald’s and Chips Ahoy. Think of it as a return to days when things were much simpler. Except now we have iPads and Broad City.
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If you want something high carb and sugary: