Study suggests sugar is addictive

Source: Agencies  |   2008-12-12  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A STUDY of rats has offered scientific proof for what many dieters already know: Sugar can be addictive.

"Bingeing on sugar can act on the brain in ways very similar to drug abuse," said Bart Hoebel of Princeton University in New Jersey, who presented his findings at a meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology in Arizona, the United States.

He said bingeing on sugar water produced behavioral and even neurochemical changes in rats that resembled the changes produced when animals or people take substances of abuse.

"These animals show signs of withdrawal and even long-lasting after-effects that might resemble craving," Hoebel said.

In one experiment, rats were fed a breakfast of sugar water for a period of three weeks.

"What we discovered is this releases a surge of dopamine. It is in a part of the brain involved in motivation and reward," Hoebel said.

"It's been known for a long time that drugs of abuse release or increase the levels of dopamine in that part of the brain. Here sugar is doing something drugs of abuse are famous for doing," he said.

He said it did not appear to be the sugar per se, but the act of bingeing on sugar that had the effect. In another experiment, rats fed this way were then denied sugar for several weeks. When they were allowed to have sugar again, they consumed more of it than before.

"We don't know about people yet," Hoebel said.

Melanie Miller, a spokeswoman for the Sugar Association, said there was currently no compelling evidence that sugar was addictive in humans.