Study Suggests Sugar May Be Addictive

[Evermore]

Finding might yield new insights into eating disorders, experts say
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.

But it wasn't only the sugar that caused this effect, Hoebel explained -- it was the sugar combined with the alternating schedule of deprivation and largesse. After three weeks, the rats showed signs of withdrawal similar to those seen when people stop smoking or drinking alcohol or using morphine.

The scientists next blocked the animals' brain endorphins and found withdrawal symptoms, anxiety, behavioral depression and a drop in dopamine levels. In other words, they confirmed a neurochemical link with the rats' behavior.




But longer periods of abstinence didn't "cure" the rats. Instead, there were long-lasting effects with the animals: They ingested more sugar than before, as if they were craving the substance and, without sugar, they drank more alcohol.

The researchers speculated that some of these brain changes may also occur in people with eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia, although more research needs to be done to confirm the effects in humans.

"Some say it's easy to lose weight -- you just have to shut your mouth, stop eating so much," Aronne said. "I tell them a good way to overcome global warming is if people made less carbon dioxide by breathing less. Obviously, that's absurd. You can't do it because you feel uncomfortable.

"The same thing is true of eating," he added. "Fattening food has an impact on the regulating mechanism that breaks down your sense of fullness, makes you feel an urge to go back and get that blast of sugar and this creates the vicious cycle of weight gain that we're going through."


All i have to say is


Umm Duh.....

[Drem]

rofl i can't believe they're comparing sugar to real substance abuse

[Arlos]

Well, if it provokes the same sort of chemical changes and reactions in the brain as other substances, why shouldn't they?

-Arlos

[Drem]

Because it's ridiculous. It's just another group of people for uptight jackasses to label "addicts." Nothing will happen to you if you eat sugar unless you don't brush your teeth or you eat it all the time and get fat. Oh God, be careful. Aren't there more important things to study and report about besides something that's been around for thousands and thousands of years that we're suddenly for no reason gonna make a huge deal about and start correlating to serious substance abuse? I really hope so

[Harrison]

What an efficient use of a doctorate

Fucking morons, seriously.

I personally like it when these kinds of people compare computers to heroin.

[Arlos]

Actually, sugar has NOT been around in a refined state for more than the last 2-300 years or so.

If you look at the teeth from skulls from the middle ages and such, there's no sugar-based tooth decay at all. There's other problems, sure, but sugar as a common refined material didn't show up until after european countries started putting up sugar cane plantations in the carribean in the 18th century or so. Before that, it was literally worth its weight in gold.

So, we're hardly talking about something that has "been around for thousands of years" in anything like a commonly accessible good. If you want proof sugar is addictive, look what happened when it was introduced to, say, the inuit in alaska and canada for the first time.

-Arlos

[Harrison]

apples and oranges
opiates and sugar

[Arlos]

They didn't claim they were the same substance.

They said that they caused similar chemical reactions in the brain. BIG difference.

-Arlos

[Harrison]

Still a massive waste of resources.

OMG IT ACTIVATES PLEASURE CENTERS?!
GOOD THING I GOT MY DOCTORATE TO TELL PEOPLE THIS FUCKING LATE BREAKING NEWS!!

[brinstar]

well fuck man what have you done with YOUR doctorate

[Harrison]

Far more important things than "finding out", "Sugar activates the same centers of your brain that certain drugs do!"



Am I the only one who doesn't find this interesting or shocking in the slightest? It's a waste of resources.

[brinstar]

perhaps you are

it's relevant because once you know that sugar triggers the addiction centers of the brain, you can either formulate a plan to deal with excessive sugar intake that is detrimental to health (i.e. too many fat kids lol) or you can come up with specific neurotransmitter agonists or inhibitors to prevent the response and thus prevent the addiction and thus prevent the fatty mcfatburger kids with the arteries of 50 year olds

[Harrison]

I think if you can't wean yourself of sugar, you deserve to be taken out back and McShot.

[Iccarra]

That reminds me...I need coffee w/sugar and creamer now dammit!

[brinstar]

I think if you can't wean yourself of sugar, you deserve to be taken out back and McShot.

maybe so. but different people have different levels of self-control and willpower, just have different people have different levels of susceptibility to not only addictive chemicals, but to addiction in general. more importantly, all these factors are not always/strictly intangible-- early childhood brain development and genetic phenotype have a huge influence on them. any furthering of the way these processes work is a good thing and leads us to understanding more about how our minds function.

[Evermore]

you do realize that sugar is not refined its extracted.

[ClakarEQ]

I think if you can't wean yourself of sugar, you deserve to be taken out back and McShot.

I agree but it needs to include any person that can't use their mind to control their body, e.g. any addict of any type (from video games, to crack coke) (j/k of course)

[Drem]

you do realize that sugar is not refined its extracted.

Every grain of white or brown sugar you've ever had in your life is refined. Unless you sit down and suck the sugar out of sugar beets. Or drink cane syrup

[Evermore]

http://www.essortment.com/all/processmakings_rzkc.htm''


the "refining" you are referring to is a purification process. sugar in its end form has no addives or preservatives. The "brown sugar" just has molasses in it which gets seperated in the purification process.

"how its made" and i forget the name of the other show on DIscovery did an episode on this and shows you what happens at each step.

[Tossica]

I would consider refining and purification the same thing in the case of sugar.

[Tossica]

also, my 7+ year study suggests that Harrison is a dumbass.

[Drem]

Yeah all I was saying is that you said it was all extracted, and not refined. When in fact it's extracted, refined, refined again, and then refined some more

the website you linked me to even says at the end it's taken to a "cane sugar refinery"

[Evermore]

so stipulated

[Harrison]

also, my 7+ year study suggests that Harrison is a dumbass.

Schmucks like you aren't qualified to make such assertions, but feel free to try it.

[araby]

duh, is right.

but yah it's a rush just like anything and can be addicting. dangerous for kids. sugar highs lead to caffeine highs which leads to drugs. I'm kidding but it's true if you consider hooking kids on something at an early age is bad no matter what it is. you still hooked them.