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Bing eating not only can cause compulsive eating and obesity, it can also be as addictive as nicotine or cocaine, according to a new study released on Sunday.

The findings, discovered in lab rats found that consumed large amounts of high-calorie foods, may help us understand and develop therapies to treat compulsions such as overeating or drug addiction, researchers wrote in the Nature Neuroscience journal.

The scientists discovered that specific dopamine receptors decreased in overweight rats, similar to drug addicts, leading them to increased cravings. Dopamine plays a significant role on our nervous system in regards to our mood and cognition. When our dopamine levels decrease, we may experience difficulty concentrating and may experience depression and/or anxiety.

"Obesity may be a form of compulsive eating. Other treatments in development for other forms of compulsion, for example drug addiction, may be very useful for the treatment of obesity," researcher Paul Kenny of The Scripps Research Institute in Florida said in a telephone interview.

In developing the research, the scientists bought high-calorie foods such as Ding-Dongs, bacon, cheesecake, sausages to healthy, balanced foods at the grocery store. One group of rats ate the balanced diet. Another group had access to the high-calorie foods for one hour a day and the third group had a combination of healthy meals and unlimited high-calorie foods.

The third group preferred the high-calorie food, ate it all day and became obese in a short time. The rats were trained to expect minor shocks when exposed to light but when the rats had unlimited high-calorie foods and were shown the light, they did not respond to the potential danger and continued to eat.

"What we're seeing in our animals is very similar to what you'd see in humans who overindulge," Kenny said. "It seemed that it was okay, from what we could tell, to enjoy snack foods, but if you repeatedly overindulge, that's where the problem comes in."

Obesity-related diseases cause an estimated $150 billion each year in the United States and an estimated 2/3 of American adults are obese or overweight.