blog:bpaddock:sugar_is_as_addictive_as_cocaine_how_you_can_kick_the_habit

Sugar is as Addictive as Cocaine How You Can Kick the Habit

Sugar is as Addictive as Cocaine - Here's How You Can Kick the Habit - By Christina Lavers

“Some of the largest companies are now using brain scans to study how we react neurologically to certain foods, especially to sugar. They’ve discovered that the brain lights up for sugar the same way it does for cocaine.” ~ Michael Moss, Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us

Sugar Addiction and the Brain

A growing body of research has demonstrated that sugar interferes with the brain’s reward processing centre in a similar way that narcotics and recreational drugs do, with sugar addicts suffering uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms when they attempt to limit their intake. In fact, one addiction study showed that 93% of animal subjects regularly chose sugar water over cocaine.

This emerging view of sugar as an addictive and dangerous substance has led researchers to investigate ways to help people curb their sugar intake in the hopes of reversing this destructive trend. Recently, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia looked at the possibility of using drugs commonly used to treat nicotine addiction as a means to assist people to improve their health by reducing their cravings for sugar. This study, published in by international research journal PLOS ONE, found that smoking cessation drugs could also be used to treat sugar addiction in animals, clearly highlighting the similarities between sugar- and narcotic-addiction in the brain.

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