Study: Chocolate chip cookies are 'like cocaine'

Chocolate chip cookies apparently are as addictive as drugs. No wonder they remain the top choice in what is a crowded cookie market.

The only thing faster than the expanding market for cookies is the expanding waistline of consumers. A recent study from the University of Bordeaux “has revealed that sugar and sweet reward can not only substitute to addictive drugs, like cocaine, but can even be more rewarding and attractive. At the neurobiological level, the neural substrates of sugar and sweet reward appear to be more robust than those of cocaine.”

Forget “Breaking Bad,” the AMC series about a high school chemistry teacher-turned drug maker. Simply break open a bag of Chips Ahoy! to get your fix.

A regular chocolate chip cookie, with 2.5 grams of sugar, the report says, “induces some of the same responses as cocaine.” Factor that in with the presence of  chocolate, which “contains small amounts of a compound that trigger the same part of your brain as the addictive ingredient marijuana” and it makes for quite the heady blend.

There are a lot of chocolate chip cookie addicts walking around. The chocolate chip cookie is America’s favorite according to nearly every poll. It accounts for a quarter of all cookie sales globally.

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And those intrinsic qualities of cookies, especially the addictive ones, make it a staple in what is expected to be a $38 billion global cookie industry by 2022.