Oreo cookies and sustainability: the new drugs of choice

America’s favorite cookie is as addictive as cocaine or heroin. According to a new Connecticut College student-faculty study, Oreos are just as addictive as drugs in lab rats. Apparently the lab rats in the study devoured the cookie sandwiches. But is there anyone in America who really believes Oreos are part of the four basic food groups?

But could this study merely help to continue the efforts to legitimize and legalize drug use, and bolster the war on some foods?

It’s time to “Just Say No’ to Oreo Cookies

Some of the groups funding the college and study are ardent supporters of “sustainable communities,” and “principles of social justice.

While most cocaine or heroin drug addicts are rail-thin, an addiction to Oreos may be a little more obvious.

Joseph Schroeder, an associate professor of psychology and director of the behavioral neuroscience program, and Connecticut College students found that eating Oreos activated more neurons in the brain’s ‘pleasure center’ than exposure to drugs of abuse, the Connecticut College News reported this week.

“Connecticut College students and a professor of psychology have found “America’s favorite cookie” is just as addictive as cocaine – at least for lab rats” the Connecticut News said. “And just like most humans, rats go for the middle first.”

“While it may not be scientifically relevant, it was surprising to watch the rats eat the famous cookie,” said Jamie Honohan, the student who originated the study idea. “They would
break it open and eat the middle first.”

Rather than treatment for cocaine or alcohol abuse at the Betty Ford Clinic, the addicted will need treatment at the Betty Crocker Center for Oreo addiction.

The study, obesity, and hunger

The study was done in the College’s Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy. The Connecticut College News said student Jamie Honohan was interested in how the prevalence of high-fat and high-sugar foods in low-income neighborhoods contributed to the obesity epidemic.

Ah. The obesity epidemic in America. But we also are barraged with stories of the hunger epidemic in America, and food insecurity. If one in six Americans is hungry, how can more than one-third of U.S. adults be obese?

“The Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy  (at Connecticut College) is a multidisciplinary academic center that advances teaching, learning, research, and community collaborations,” the website says. “It works to create more just and equitable communities through programs that cultivate intellectual and ethical judgment.”

Even more interesting is the vague description of the Holleran Center which says it “prepares students for lives of civic engagement and leadership while collaborating with community partners to advance the public good.”

The History of the Holleran Center says Center faculty and staff have presented on research, course development and college/community partnerships throughout the United States and in international forums such as the Open Space, People Space Conference in Scotland. The Open Space movement studies “Urban lifestyles, which even rural children often live these days, place many restrictions on their freedom to explore and enjoy their environment.”

Who funds this venture?

Major grants from the Surdna and the Lucent Foundations funded the initial years of the Center.

“The Surdna Foundation seeks to foster sustainable communities in the United States — communities guided by principles of social justice and distinguished by healthy environments, strong local economies, and thriving cultures.”

The Lucent Foundation also supports “sustainability,” whatever that is. “Its prime mission is to respond to today’s global challenge of digital inclusion and sustainability, focusing on providing innovative programs for underserved communities across the world that enable youth, and particularly young women, to access educational and life skills programs,” the Lucent Foundation website says.

Sustainability

There's that word “sustainability” again. Organizations which push “sustainability” and claim to be supporters of it, are not entirely truthful about intentions.  What does sustainability do for  a developing country?  Recycling, the preservation of nature and endangered species, and renewable energy are hardly the concerns of emerging or developing nations.

As important as these issues may be to many, people who are hungry, and living squalor in third world countries or in ghettos don't ever think about “sustainability.”

And really, the groups who claim to support sustainability end up placing the poor at the centre of the sustainability cause. They make improving the lives of the poor a “sustainability” issue. But they are not working on behalf of the poor.

And it's not about Oreo cookies.