Junk food may cause cocaine-like addiction

Next time you eye that hot dog or bag of chips, check yourself. It could just be a slippery slope. A new study published in Nature Neuroscience Sunday by scientists at the Scripps Research Institute found that junk food has the same kind of addiction as other bad stuff such as cigarettes, cocaine and yes, even opium -- well, at least in rats. One hot dog could lead to the next one and the binging in turn contributes to obesity.

The findings were based on a 40-day study on three groups of rat models. One ate a normal rat-food diet, while the second was given junk food once a day. The third group was kept on an a high fat-diet of foods such as sausage, bacon and cheesecake.