Sugar, Cocaine, Heroin Equally Strong Addictions, Study Suggests
It’s really not news. Silent film star Gloria Swanson knew it way back when. William Duffy’s 1975 bestseller, ‘Sugar Blues,’ quotes her as saying, “That stuff is poison.” Wouldn’t even allow it in her house. Now a new study from Princeton University, using modern-day scientific equipment, has documented how sugar affects brain function the same way cocaine and heroin do.
Princeton psychology professor Bart Hoebel led researchers through a study of sugar’s effect on the brains of rats and their evidence indicates a sugar binge alters brain function and fuels the desire for more of the sweet stuff. The alteration to brain function worked pretty much like the brain functions when addicted to cocaine and heroin, complete with psychological and physical symptoms of withdrawal when sugar was denied.
First comes the sugar high, including the feel-good rush drug addicts crave. Hoebel says this is due to the release or increase in the neurotransmitter, dopamine, in a particular part of the brain associated with addictive behaviors.
Next comes the blues of withdrawal. Chattering teeth, anxiety, desire for isolation, refusal to participate in everyday activities. These symptoms of sugar deprivation mimic closely withdrawal symptoms people experience when tobacco, alcohol, and drugs are withheld.
Of course, some people can enjoy a cocktail or cigarette without developing an addiction and some can enjoy cinnamon rolls for breakfast every day without craving sugar the rest of the day. But some people cannot. For these sugar-holics, Dr. Louis Aronne says there are treatments available that will help kick one’s desire for sweets, although those who eat sugar first thing in the morning have a much more difficult time of controlling their sweet tooth the rest of the day.
Aronne is director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s Weill Cornell Medical Center. He suggests eating protein and vegetables in the mornings to minimize cravings for sweets that may thwart best intentions as the day goes by.
Shunning sugar certainly didn’t hurt Miss Swanson, who made Duffy her sixth and last husband, happily married until her death at age 84.
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[...] from Princeton University, using modern-day scientific equipment, has documented how sugar affects brain function the same way cocaine and heroin [...]
[...] scientific science-study led by Princeton research psychologist Bart Hoebel has found that rats that have been subjected to a sugar binge display similar physical and [...]
This study is a good example of why we need to stop outlawing drugs. Why should I as a tax payer have to pay taxes towards people that use refine sugar that are overweight or have diabetes? People choose there life styles and should have the right to do so. But for me to have to pay for the health cost that refine sugar causes is wrong. Same as me having to pay taxes for something that people do in their own home. If people want to use drugs in their own home let theme. But for me to pay the legal bill for a bunch of white “Moral Majority Christian” that are toting “zero tolerance” when they are the filthy ones-ie Bankers, Enron, Murdock ect.. is driving America into the ground.
[...] new study has shown a relation between sugar and addiction. This study, conducted at Princeton University, [...]
[...] Sugar, Cocaine, Heroin Equally Strong Addictions, Study Suggests [...]
The key to kicking sugar addiction is to remove grains from the diet & add natural fats & proteins. Grains feed the addiction. The easiest way is first to add protein to your breakfast, until you’re eating a full serving (~4oz) of meat, eggs, cheese, or whatever you prefer at breakfast, then do the same with lunch & dinner, also using natural fats to taste with everything. Do it for a month and see what happens to the constant bread & sugar urges.
You’re right Leigh that in order to kick sugar addiction people should eat healthier.Also it is true that sugar addiction may be compared with drugs.The only difference is that the treatment for cocaine addiction is more complex, while removing sugar from your daily diet requires just ambition and determination.Jennifer Howell
I beg to differ with Jenydo. Sugar is just as addictive to some as alcohol or cocaine
and to remove it takes the same type of measures as drug and alcohol addiction.
People like you who think it just takes “ambition & determination” to remove sugar addiction. definitely don’t have the problem and don’t understand.
I have to totally disagree that sugar is as addictive as the drugs cocaine and heroin. I personally have experience with both Heroin Addiction and Cocaine Addiction and a sugar addiction does not even compare!
Trust me I love sugar and am addicted, but it’s NOTHING like a cocaine or heroin addiction.
So I definitely disagree here.
Greg
I notice there are no references for this article so I must ask a few questions.
What precisely was covered in study?
What was the sample size?
Was the study double blind?
What were the P values?
What peer reviewed journal was this published in?