Some recent studies on mice have clearly shown that sugar is addictive. By manipulating their diet to include more or less sugar, or to produce a sugar withdrawal effect, scientists can produce similar behavior to true drug addiction. What’s more surprising however is that, rats chose sugar over cocaine – even when they were addicted to cocaine, in a study by French scientists
One of the most common modern day dependencies is our growing addiction to sugar.
We hear a lot about addiction to caffeine, sleeping pills and alcohol.
Can we really add sugar to that list?
According to an increasing number of ‘sugar experts’ the answer is yes.
In humans such studies are a bit more difficult to do. However, research using brain scans found that drinking sugary milkshakes triggered the same ‘reward centre’. What’s more, increasing the amount of fat in the milkshake didn’t really affect it – sugar was the culprit.
And as with any potentially addictive substance, the more we consume, the more our reward receptors get numbed to it – so we look for even more to re-create that ‘high’. This means the heavier we get, the less of a high we get from food, and the more we look for it.
Drug addicts do it, alcoholics do it, and there is increasing evidence that sugar causes similar behavior.
So if you find yourself constantly craving sugary treats (even more than usual at this time of year), the less than sweet truth is it may be more than a bad habit you’ve picked up over the festive season.
You may have one of the most common modern-day dependencies – sugar addiction.
All this goes some way to explain why we are consuming increasing amounts of the white stuff (sugar I mean).
What’s more, modern diets – and the amount of hidden sugar contained in processed foods and many drinks – mean even those who aren’t addicted can find it hard to reduce their sugar consumption.
But the good news is that with the right information and support we can learn to manage our sugar cravings, as well as avoiding some of those hidden sugars.
And with risks involved in overconsumption of sugar include – contributing to rising rates of obesity, type-two-diabetes, cardio-vascular problems and some cancers.
.