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Cheesecake-eating rats and the question of food addiction

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Rats given extended access to high-fat high-sugar food show behavioral and physiological changes that are similar to those caused by drugs of abuse. However, parallels between drug and food “addiction” should be drawn with caution.

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Figure 1: Prolonged access to cafeteria food causes persistent elevations in threshold for BSR: comparison with drugs of abuse.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health and Human Services, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Drug Abuse, US National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    David H Epstein & Yavin Shaham

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  1. David H Epstein
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  2. Yavin Shaham
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Correspondence to Yavin Shaham.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Epstein, D., Shaham, Y. Cheesecake-eating rats and the question of food addiction. Nat Neurosci 13, 529–531 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0510-529

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