---
title: "Psych News Alert: Is Ice Cream Addictive?"
description: Is ice cream as addictive as drugs? That's the question that research from the Oregon Research Institute, published in this week's A...
image: https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/icecreamboy_71039098-Jun-24-2025-04-13-37-3762-PM.jpg
---

 2/23/12 12:00 AM

# Is Ice Cream Addictive?

![Picture of Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Psych%20News%20Email%20Banners/PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png?width=50&name=PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png) [ Psychiatric News Alert ](https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert)

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Is ice cream as addictive as drugs? That's the question that research from the Oregon Research Institute, published in this week's *American Journal of Clinical Nutrition*, has raised. And the answer appears to be "yes." Investigators tested their hypothesis that frequent ice cream consumption would be associated with reduced activation in reward-related brain regions, such as the striatum, in response to receipt of an ice cream–based treat. They had 151 healthy-weight adolescents undergo fMRI during receipt of an ice cream milkshake and during receipt of a tasteless solution. Percentage body fat, food intake, and food craving were assessed.

Milkshake receipt robustly activated the striatal regions, yet frequent ice cream consumption was associated with a reduced response to milkshake receipt. Percentage body fat, total energy intake, percentage of energy from fat and sugar, and intake of other energy-dense foods were not related to the neural response to milkshake receipt. "Our results provide novel evidence that frequent consumption of ice cream, independent of body fat, is related to a reduction in reward-region responsivity in humans, paralleling the tolerance observed in drug addiction," they concluded.

Other recent brain-imaging studies have supported the theory that overeating is also an addiction. Read more about it in *Psychiatric News* [here](http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/newsarticle.aspx?articleid=116627).

(Image: 3445128471/Shutterstock.com)

[addiction](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/addiction), [striatum](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/striatum), [reward](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/reward), [ice cream](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/ice-cream)

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