Study: Sugar may be as addictive as cocaine

By Amanda Gardner, HealthDay Reporter


WEDNESDAY, Dec. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Science is verifying what many overeaters have suspected for a long time: sugar can be addictive.

In fact, the sweetener seems to prompt the same chemical changes in the brain seen in people who abuse drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

The findings were to be presented Wednesday at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology's annual meeting, in Nashville.

"Our evidence from an animal model suggests that bingeing on sugar can act in the brain in ways very similar to drugs of abuse," lead researcher Bart Hoebel, a professor of psychology at Princeton University, said during a Dec. 4 teleconference.

"Drinking large amounts of sugar water when hungry can cause behavioral changes and even neurochemical changes in the brain which resemble changes that are produced when animals or people take substances of abuse. These animals show signs of withdrawal and even long-lasting effects that might resemble craving," he said.

Dr. Louis Aronne, director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, added: "The big question has been whether it's just a behavioral thing or is it a metabolic chemical thing, and evidence like this supports the idea that something chemical is going on."

A "sugar addiction" may even act as a "gateway" to later abuse of drugs such as alcohol, Hoebel said.

The stages of addiction, as defined by the American Psychiatric Association, include bingeing, withdrawal and craving.

For the new research, rats were denied food for 12 hours a day, then were given access to food and sugar (25 percent glucose and 10 percent sucrose, similar to a soft drink) for 12 hours a day, for three to four weeks.

The bingeing released a surge of the neurotransmitter dopamine each time in the part of the brain involved in reward, the nucleus accumbens. "It's been known that drugs of abuse release or increase the levels of dopamine in that part of the brain," Hoebel said.



http://health.msn.com/health-topics/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100228625&gt1=31036

 

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Gateway my ass. I love sugar, but I will never touch cocaine.

That article has a point to some extent. But likening it to a dangerous drug such as cocaine is ridiculous.

This sounds distinctly unsound

Of course they had a surge in the reward centre and then withdrawal, so would anyone if they were forbidden to eat for 12 hours then suddenly allowed to eat. I think that would happen no matter what the food was.

 

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Sugar is nothing, try giving up fat.

 

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No way is Cocaine as nice as sugar.
You may need cocaine or one of it's replacements if you eat too much sugar.
At the dentist.

 

I don't think that study is anything new or profound. Of course people get "addicted" to sugar. Humans need sugar to live. Craving sugar when you don't have it is the body's way of looking out for it's own welfare. Just because some people binge on it means they have poor impulse control. I don't think it's valid to liken it to cocaine.

 

When you have a ridiculously fast metabolism like I do, you don't have to give up either one!

 

Diet Advice.
(Please note that Captain Kremmen is not a Doctor and may be totally incorrect)

Never give up fat.
Your body need good fats
Good fats are grilled fatty fish, olive oil, rice oil.

Either exercise more or be fat and healthy.

As for sugar, it's for the bees.
Leave it alone.

 

Until recently, alcoholics were anecdotally told to have a sugary sweet to stave off the urge for alcohol, but now it's understood that part of the urge to drink can be caused by low blood sugar. (http://www.brighteyecounselling.co.uk/alcohol-drugs/low-blood-sugar-levels-cause-alcohol-cravings/)

So that said, it's hardly surprising there can be a real urge for sugar either, it's quick easy carbs, with a nice reward.

Also, I think drug addictions such as cocaine and heroin are overstated. Addicts are weak people stuck on substances, not regular people stuck on strong substances.

 

Phlogistician that's not a true statement at all. Saying that only shows your ignorance toward hard drugs. Many "regular" people become addicts just as easy as weak ones. Unless you can back up your statement I really don't think you understand just how strong hard drugs are to stop taking once you are using them constantly.

 

You do realize that much like the fats you mentioned, our bodies need sugar as well, don't you? Sugar is used by the body to create insulin.
http://www.wopaa.org/index.php?opti...es your Body Need Sugar?&catid=45:Your health

And yes, it does say too much sugar is bad for you, which seems to be the point you are getting at, but guess what? Too much water can be bad for you as well.
So at best, your 'diet advice' should have been a bit more specific.

 

Insulin is a hormone that is secreted by the beta cells of the pancreas in response to increase in glucose levels in the blood. Sugar is not used to create insulin, its used for energy and for conversion to glycogen in liver and muscle, with excess being stored as fat.

 

I try to use honey and brown sugar whenever I can. It seems they digest better in my system or is that just a lie?:shrug:

 

You're right. My type 2 diabetic coworker just corrected me as well.

 

I agree.
But there's sugar and there's sugar.
There is refined white sugar, which was never part of our natural diet, rots your teeth and takes a mallet to your system.
That's the nice addictive stuff, which children never refuse.

Then there are complex sugars which are contained in fruits, vegetables , and starchy foods.
The second type is good for you.

 

it's natural\normal to crave sugar and it is natural to crave salt. it is not normal to crave illegal substances.

 

Yeah, what you stated is pretty much what the article stated.
White sugar is considered a simple carb, which is generally burned up very quickly. Whereas starches and such that you find in potatoes are complex carbs, which burn very slowly. That's why when you eat a potato, your body will feed off those carbs more or less across the whole day, whereas sugars from a soda for example, can be burned up in an hour or two tops.
Simple carbs aren't that bad for people with fast metabolisms, as they get burned up rather quickly. It's bad for ones with slow metabolisms because any simple carb that does not get burned up right away, gets stored as fat.

 

It's not natural for substances to be illegal.

 

i think that everything is natural, it is just when they are combined with other things.

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it's funny becasue when i worked for the company we would work underground, just myself and another guy. we would stay deep underground and were not allowed to leave the facility. so we knew that in a 24hr period we would crave both sugar and salt at varying intervals.

 

not a lie.
honey has been predigested by bees.

try honey on toast instead of jelly.

 

the most adictive substance of all is oxygen

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Seriously though of course sugar is adictive, as is salt. They are important things to the body so its no wonder it craves them any more than it craves oxygen. We are built for stavation and the 100's of years of plenty havent changed that.

The one substance which is adictive i find REALLY odd is chilli. Aparently its highly adictive but i cant really see any reason for it. As far as i can work out it doesnt even get digested properly by the body (hence the "burning ring of fire"

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