Researchers Has Proven Sugar to Be More Addictive Than Cocaine

You must have probably heard that sugar is bad for you. You may also have struggled to stay off sugary stuff and somehow you heard that sugar is addictive. But what you may probably not be aware of is that sugar is more addictive than cocaine.

Four scientists Magalie Lenoir, Fuschia Serre, Lauriane Cantin, and Serge H. Ahmed from the University Bordeaux France in 2007 published their research findings titled Intense Sweetness Surpasses Cocaine Reward.

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In the findings using laboratory rat placed in a cage with two levers rigged in such a way a hit on the lever either provides the rat with an intravenous injection of cocaine and the other gives them 20 seconds to drink a saccharine-sweetened water. Saccharine is an artificial sweetener. In the subsequent test, sugar was used.

At the beginning to remove bias, the rats were given freedom to test the two levers to have a record of preference if any.

Result

The test result revealed that rat 94% of the time went for the lever that allows them to drink from the sugar-sweetened water. This behavior continued even when the cocaine dosage was increased with the sugar quantity same amount; the rat preferred the sugar-sweetened water.

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Inference

From this article the researchers found out that both animals and humans have an intense reaction to sweetness due to the simple fact that the sweetness receptors in our system evolved at a time when diets/foods have very low sugar content and as a result any sweetness above that little level has a high response from the reward centers of the brain making us seek for some more of it and hence get addicted.

For more on this astounding research finding you could read more here.

The Sugary Truth: Why Sugar is Bad for You

Sugar tastes good but it is also addictive and it plays with our brain. consuming or even thinking about it triggers the production of dopamine( a neurotransmitter that controls pleasure also responsible for behavior rewards) in the brain. This keeps sugar right on top of addictive foods right in the league of alcohol and cocaine.

Sugar is also easily obtained as it is freely available as it is in about 80% (or more) of items to be bought from the grocery stores.

The food manufacturers are very smart people who try to hide these facts by using other nicknames for sugar such as cane sugar, caramel, corn syrup, cane juice, agave nectar, Barbados sugar, beet sugar,corn sweetener,fructose,crystalline fructose,corn sweetener,dehydrated cane juice, confectioner's sugar,maple syrup, invert sugar, etc.

Here are just the simple reasons sugar is bad for you

1. Insulin Resistance: Too much sugar creates insulin resistance. Insulin (an important hormone) whose role it is to allow glucose (blood sugar) to enter cells and informs cells to burn glucose instead of fat. This is because too much glucose in blood could lead to complications like blindness and diabetes.

2. Bad for your Teeth: Sugar contains no essential calorie that is why it is called 'empty calorie' also it is bad for your teeth (provides easily digestible energy for the harmful bacteria in the mouth). It is just pure energy since it contains no proteins, essential fats, vitamins or minerals in sugar.Little wonder it is the major constituent of energy drinks.
   
   
   
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3. More Work for the liver: Consuming large amounts of sugar gives the liver more work as it converts the excess fructose to fat which can lead to fatty liver and other complications to the liver.

4. Makes you fat: Increased consumption of sugar leads to a high-calorie intake since the calorie from sugar is not as satisfying in effecting the hunger hormone ghrelin.
   
   
   

   
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5. Addiction: Due to its effect on dopamine, consumers are easily addicted leading to more consumption of junk food containing sugar with its resultant bad complication on their health.

Sugar is the major culprit in heart diseases.It is often said to be fats but it is sugar that raises our cholesterol level.

Studies show that large amounts of fructose can raise triglycerides, small, dense LDL and oxidized LDL (very, very bad), raise blood glucose and insulin levels and increase abdominal obesity -- in as little as 10 weeks.
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The stated factors all help in causing heart diseases.

After reading this, still feel like going on a sugar binge?

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