Is Ice Cream as Addictive as Drugs? (2024)

Can ice cream be as addictive as drugs? If it's Häagen Dazs you're eating, the answer may be "yes."

According to The Telegraph, a study performed by the Oregon Research Institute showed that ice cream does in fact have "addictive properties." For the study, researchers interviewed 151 teenagers between ages 14 and 16 about their eating habits and food cravings. Before consuming any real ice cream, each teen was given a brain scan with a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Machine while looking at a picture of a milkshake. The teens were then given chocolate milkshakes that contained real Häagen Dazs ice cream.

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Ultimately, all of the teens wanted to eat the shake, but the teens that had eaten the most ice cream over the previous weeks before the study enjoyed the ice cream less than those who hadn't consumed very much ice cream before the study. The co-author of the study, Dr. Burger, compared this reaction to that of many drug addicts. He stated that, like drug addiction, the people who had eaten the substance — in this case, ice cream— many times recently exhibited increased cravings but also experienced less pleasure.

Dr. Burger said this reaction could be due to lower levels of dopamine being released in the brain. He told The Telegraph, "You could be continually trying to match the earlier experience." This would lead people to eat more ice cream in an effort to achieve maximum pleasure, just as drug addicts continue to need more and more drugs to reach the original state of pleasure. "The more an individual uses a drug, the less reward they receive from using it", stated Dr. Burger. Apparently the same goes for ice cream.

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The study found that the teenagers who consumed the most ice cream during the study needed to eat more to enjoy the previous feeling of euphoria. While the researchers did state that it is unlikely that a person would develop a full-blown addiction to ice cream, the treat does have properties that are addictive. The need to eat more ice cream to reach the previous level of pleasure could lead to overeating and weight gain.

Do you think that ice cream can be addictive?