Around the Bluhmin’ Town

By

Judy Bluhm

What do Oreo cookies and psychoactive drugs have in common? Evidently, they are both highly addictive. Ha! I knew that some very serious group of scientists would one day be sitting around in their lab coats, breaking apart the little chocolate rounds and licking the icing, with a big glass of milk. Geez, a new discovery was made! These cookies taste good! Oh yea, get me a lab coat because I want that job. Nothing like getting a big fat grant (government funded) and a plate of cookies to make an earth shattering “find” that all of us already know. We love our Oreos.

Can 100 countries be wrong? Could 60 Billion cookies sold each year give us all the “research” that we really need? No wonder our government finds itself “in the red” most of the time! Why are we even “investigating” the addictive quality in cookies?

It seems obvious that people love their Oreos. They like to twist,, lick, dunk and eat them! Okay, so a bunch of lab rats in a Connecticut College experiment were given the choice of eating rice cakes (cardboard) or Oreos (heaven) and we are supposed to be shocked that they all chose the Oreos.? It was also determined that eating the cookies activated more neurons in the rat brain’s “pleasure centers” than drugs, such as cocaine. Oh, and the rats liked to break open the chocolate biscuits and eat thedelicious creamy center first. Smart little rodents.

What those scientists failed to tell us is that the “addiction” to Oreos doesn’t seem to matter. No marriages ruined, jobs lost, laws broken, and lives ravaged because folks like to eat cookies. Okay, so those pesky little “pleasure centers” in human (and rat) brains do seem to release a whole bunch of “feel good” neurons while we are eating sugar (or using drugs). But the use of the term “Oreo addict” seems a bit harsh. They are just cookies!

I do recall one of my grandsons stole a package of Oreos when he was about six years old. He grabbed them out of the pantry, sat in a closet and happily ate ten cookies and hid the rest from his brothers. When confronted about the cookie hoist, he claimed a “strange man walked into the house and stole the Oreos.” Although the evidence of cookie crumbs was on his face, he stuck to his story. (He has grown up to be a non-addicted adult).

Who knew that two little chocolate disks of biscuit sandwiched between vanilla crème filling would become the biggest selling treat in the world for over 111 years? Addictive? Perhaps. Bad for us? Never! Oreos are part of our collective memories of childhood. They are not just a cookie, but bits of our childhood sandwiched between recollections of a simpler, purer time.

Let’s not worry about what scientists say about Oreos. I am conducting my own “cookie research” at this very moment and will report back to you. In the meantime, Dear Readers, don’t be afraid to twist, lick, munch and dunk. It’s all good.

Judy Bluhm is a writer and a local realtor. Have a comment or a story? Email Judy at [email protected].