Seeing a milkshake can activate the same areas of the brain that light up when an addict sees cocaine, which makes it so hard for some people to maintain a healthy weight, reports Reuters.

According to the study led by Ashley Gearhardt of Yale University in Connecticut, the study helps explain “why it has been so difficult for drugmakers and health experts to find obesity treatments that work.”

“If certain foods are addictive, this may partially explain the difficulty people experience in achieving sustainable weight loss,” Gearhardt and colleagues wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Gearhardt’s team studied women ranging from lean to obese by using a type of brain imaging known as functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to study brain activity in 48 young women who were offered a chocolate milkshake or a tasteless solution.

The results showed that seeing the milkshake triggered brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and the medial orbitofrontal cortex — brain areas that have been implicated in an addict’s urge to use drugs.

“These findings support the theory that compulsive food consumption may be driven in part by an enhanced anticipation of the rewarding properties of food,” Gearhardt and colleagues wrote.

People who are addicted to a substance are more likely to react with physical, psychological and behavioral changes when exposed to that substance. Altering visual “cues” — billboards of tempting treats, for example — might help curb the urge to indulge, they said.

Obesity is one of the biggest health challenges facing the United States, and health officials already passed a bill requiring restaurants add calorie counts to their menus.

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