Hey there and welcome to Life Noggin.
Oh?
Everything is candy!
Sweet!
I don’t know about you, but I really love sugar.
Anything sweet really.
And kind.
And smart.
And super tough... and oh geez, I’m doing it again!
Uh, back on topic, Blocko.
So yeah, sugar, it’s pretty awesome, right!
Some people even say they’re addicted to the stuff.
but is it actually possible to get /addicted/ to sugar like you can with certain drugs?
Well, first off, if we’re going to try and compare the two, just what is a drug addiction?
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, addiction is a chronic brain disease
characterized by a person’s compulsion to seek out and use drugs, despite there being
harmful consequences.
Drugs can alter your brain — both in how it works and its actual structure — and
those changes can be long-lasting, leading to harmful behaviors.
Sometimes even self-destructive ones.
So can the same type of thing happen with sugar?
Unfortunately, people can’t really seem to agree one way or the other.
Now, there are certainly supporters that back the idea of sugar addiction.
A good example is an article put out just last year in the British Journal of Sports
Medicine.
After looking at a bunch of data, both with animals and humans, researchers said that
there are substantial parallels between sugar and drugs of abuse, from both a behavioral
standpoint and one of brain neurochemistry.
They even brought up how certain animal studies have shown that the reward for sugar can surpass
that of cocaine!
So it’s a pretty good case for sugar addiction being real.
But a recent 2016 study argues the opposite.
The researchers started off by looking at the literature on sugar and food addictions.
Then they examined if sugar could be addictive by pitting any evidence from the animal and
human neuroscience literature on drug and sugar addiction against each other.
In the end, they found little evidence to support that humans could be addicted to sugar.
They also said that findings from animal cases suggest that their addiction-like behaviors
happened only when they had intermittent access to sugar, believing those behaviors to come
from the intermittent access, not the actual neurochemical effects of sugar.
Though, on another note, one thing that potentially points to sugar cravings as being similar
to addiction is that drugs designed to help people quit smoking might also help you curb
a bit of your sweet tooth.
Looking at a study using rats, research suggests that varenicline, an FDA-approved drug used
to help people with nicotine cravings, could also be used to reduce your desire to eat
sugary foods.
In the study, rats were given the choice to either drink from a bottle containing only
water, or one that had been sweetened with sucrose.
While our little furry friends used varenicline, researchers found that the rats consumed significantly
less sucrose.
Interesting!
But this all means that we don’t really have a clear answer on whether or not you
can actually be addicted to sugar.
But either way, sugar can have an affect on your life and sometimes people want to cut
it out.
Specifically added sugars, which are are sugars and syrups that are added to what you eat
or drink when it’s prepared or processed.
So that just means getting rid of things like candies and soda, right?!
Apparently not.
Added sugar is in a bunch of “healthier” options too.
You can find decent amounts of added sugar in everything from granola bars and yogurt,
to canned fruits and even spaghetti sauce!
Wow, there’s so many sugary things up there!
If you want to get any sweet foods down here in the Life Noggin world, you have to visit
one of those websites that remembers some of your data.
Uh?
Of course I’ll enable cookies!
Bring em here!
Gimmie!
Give me the cookies!
Gimmie!
So do you think you're addicted to sugar?
What’s your favorite sugary treat to eat?
Let me know in the comment section below.
Wanna learn more about a rare syndrome that essentially turns you to stone?
Check out this video!
Imagine one day you find a huge lump on your rib cage, and even after getting it x-rayed,
you still don't know what's going on.
As always, my name is Blocko, this has been Life Noggin, don't forget to Keep On Thinking!