Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Is Ice Cream Addictive?


Obviously! But just in case your personal research and case studies of friends and family (namely, yours truly) did not reveal enough evidence of the addictive properties of ice cream, a study performed by the Oregon Research Institute has confirmed it. Well, sort of. They confirmed the following:

  • Teenagers like milkshakes.
  • Study participants who ate ice cream the week before the study were less excited about eating ice cream during the study. Researchers associated this with increased cravings yet less derived pleasure associated with repeated drug use.
  • The more ice cream you eat, the more ice cream you need to get an ice cream buzz.
  • It is unlikely that a person would develop a "full-blown addiction" to ice cream but the addictive properties could lead to overeating and weight gain.

While it was my initial intent to poke fun at this study, I have to admit that I not only crave ice cream - I succumb to those cravings very often. Why? Because I love everything about ice cream! Who doesn't?! I've never come across someone eating ice cream who isn't happy. I don't drink or smoke, I exercise regularly, I eat more vegetables than my garden can grow, but the hard-to-put-in-writing truth is that I have been known to consider a bowl of ice cream a great way to start my day. 

However, in response to this study I have decided to give up ice cream for the remainder of the month of March in hopes to determine whether or not I am addicted. I will tweet cravings/confessions as I have them and report back on the topic come April. 

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I whole-heartedly support your endeavor to give up ice cream for the month of March and suggest you immediately ship any ice cream in the area surrounding your crave zone to my address.

Sincerely,

Really, all of your friends.

Becky said...

So giving up ice cream for Lent?...Imagine how great it will be when you taste it again ;)

Deb said...

I'm not gonna lie... the euphoria after the weeks without it may be the only thing that keeps me going! Holy crap, that is addiction!

Brian said...

I support you in your rehab and will endeavor to pick up the slack. I wonder if goats like ice cream?

Niko said...

I will make sure Deb truly honors this sacrifice! Oh, and I give it two weeks, JS....lol, anyone care to make a wager?

Deb said...

Niko: I can't believe you are taking bets!

Brian: If goats like ice cream, I am pretty sure the trailer is gonna have to stop for ice cream to reward big grazing jobs this summer!

Becky: Does Lent end before or after April 1st? If before, call me Catholic (although I am very bad Catholic for not knowing this!)

All: Dad's birthday is this weekend and his wife emailed me asking if this means I cannot have ice cream cake on Saturday. Thoughts? Make an exception? No?

Tim said...

I remember trying ones kicking off ice cream (at one stage I was eating it nearly daily). Went alright for about 2 weeks or so before I went crazy and just pigged out on it. Going cold turkey is not easy, that is for sure..

Deborah said...

Yeah... this is seriously harder than I thought. I've gone days without it before but knowing it is not an option makes it different somehow.

Becky said...

what the heck addicts? I go weeks without icecream all the time...don't even really like it all that much ;)
Now giving up diet coke...that was an addiction!

Deborah said...

Your diet-coke-kicking was inspirational and possibly harder than this. The beautiful weather isn't helping. I don't know how many days it has been now but it suuuuucks.