# Sugar Addiction real?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-addiction-real/496016
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 11, 2009, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-addiction-real/496016 "2009-05-11T11:43:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-addiction-real/496016/1 "2009-05-11T11:43:26Z")
I have recently read a few online articles that claim that sugar is addictive - physically not just psychologically. However, none of the articles cited their source studies. Are there any studies showing that sugar is addictive in the same way cocaine or nicotine is?
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### Author:  [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-addiction-real/496016/2 "2009-05-11T12:18:44Z")
I dunno about sugar, but I wanted to remark that most addictions are mostly “psychological”. There aren’t that many addictions that cause the kind of heavy withdrawal symptoms that opiates do, and when they do, it’s usually over within a few days to a couple of weeks (alcohol is a notable exception to this, by the way - alcohol withdrawal can cause serious permanent damage). But the attraction can stay forever.
In other words, the psychological dependency/attraction seems to be what makes it so hard to _stay_ clean.
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### Author:  [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-addiction-real/496016/3 "2009-05-11T13:33:59Z")
So, physically additive, and not just psychologically additive, ay? Hrm…I don’t see it as very likely. Sucrose is a very small molecule, and not likely structurally similar to some sort of neurotransmitter. And so very common, many plant sources have some, not just sugar cane, it seems like it would be too weird for that reason as well, for it to be a physical addition. They’re going to have to come up with a real citation, something along the lines of, sucrose bonding to protein precursor XJ-23k, with enhanced triggering of the “happy-happy-joy-joy-gorge-and-get-fat-neural cluster” or something along those lines
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### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-addiction-real/496016/4 "2009-05-11T14:13:28Z")
By the standard of being able to objectively measure some physiological response, cocaine and nicotine aren’t “physically” addictive either. But no one claims that using them is simply a bad habit. I think that what makes the difference is that no one can use cocaine or nicotine regularly without becoming habituated to them, but only a subset of the population reacts so severely to sugar. I can only speak from subjective experience but for me not only is sugar addictive but so is any form of high-glycemic resonse food such as white flour or potatoes.
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### Author:  [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-addiction-real/496016/5 "2009-05-11T14:17:25Z")
About 10-12 years ago, I remember seeing what I thought at the time was a self-parodical interview with the chronically-drug-addicted Eric Clapton. He was on 60 Minutes talking about his first addiction at age 6 or so, where he would shovel as much sugar into his mouth as possible, and as often as possible, in order to get high. Not sure if this bizarre anecdote really captures the answer you’re looking for though.
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-addiction-real/496016/6 "2009-05-11T14:18:13Z")
> **[Food addiction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_addiction)**
>
> A food addiction or eating addiction is any behavioral addiction that is primarily characterized by the compulsive consumption of palatable (e.g., high fat and high sugar) food items which markedly activate the reward system in humans and other animals despite adverse consequences.
> Psychological dependence has also been observed, with the occurrence of withdrawal symptoms when substituting foods low in sugar and fat. A person cannot develop a trait that codes for an eating disorder. Professional...
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### Author:  [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-addiction-real/496016/7 "2009-05-11T16:35:14Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#):
>
> [Food addiction - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_addiction)
Well, there are citations from peer-reviewed journals, so the BS-meter should read clean. Though it would be nice if I could find a more compete description of the mechanism alluded to in the Wikipedia article, but Googleing for results is just going to get me some more personal anecdotes. I’ll keep it in the back of my head, unless Uncle Cecil would like to write an article on the subject after chatting with some neurobiologists on the journal articles.
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### Author:  [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-addiction-real/496016/8 "2009-05-11T18:16:11Z")
Your body needs sugar, right? So how much sugar is one supposed to eat to qualify for an addiction?
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### Author:  [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-addiction-real/496016/9 "2009-05-11T18:44:39Z")
What would happen if one’s succrose intake were replaced with another form of sugar like glucose? I imagine that there would be taste differences as well as physical differences in the form of one’s diet, since succrose has uses beyond sweetening. But would there be biological changes in one’s body or behaviour?
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### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-addiction-real/496016/10 "2009-05-11T20:28:17Z")
Your body needs sugar but it will break down complex carbs and even protein into simple sugars. Indeed that is what the body uses. This is why you feel a rush with table sugar, because you’re body can quickly break it down while if you eat a bunch of starches like potatos you’re body takes longer to break the sugars in the starch down.
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### Author:  [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-addiction-real/496016/11 "2009-05-11T21:20:58Z")
> [@Cagey\_Drifter](#):
>
> About 10-12 years ago, I remember seeing what I thought at the time was a self-parodical interview with the chronically-drug-addicted Eric Clapton. He was on 60 Minutes talking about his first addiction at age 6 or so, where he would shovel as much sugar into his mouth as possible, and as often as possible, in order to get high. Not sure if this bizarre anecdote really captures the answer you’re looking for though.
For what it’s worth, George Harrison wrote the song [Savoy Truffle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savoy_Truffle) in honour of Clapton’s chocolate addiction. (I assume this thread will determine definitively whether I should have put quotes around “addiction” in that sentence.)
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-addiction-real/496016/12 "2009-05-11T22:57:38Z")
> [@Arkcon](#):
>
> Well, there are citations from peer-reviewed journals, so the BS-meter should read clean. Though it would be nice if I could find a more compete description of the mechanism alluded to in the Wikipedia article, but Googleing for results is just going to get me some more personal anecdotes. I’ll keep it in the back of my head, unless Uncle Cecil would like to write an article on the subject after chatting with some neurobiologists on the journal articles.
Go to Google Scholar and try putting in the titles of the papers that the Wikipedia article references.
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2009, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sugar-addiction-real/496016/13 "2009-05-12T02:02:48Z")
Purely anecdotal information:
I was on a totally liquid diet for six months. The diet was less than five hundred calories a day. I don’t recall what kind of sugar or sugars the liquid contained. All of this was closely monitored by a doctor who did weekly blood tests.
After about three months, I no longer concerned myself with food at all. I would sometimes forget to drink the liquid. There was no hunger and no cravings.
After six months I reluctantly had to begin refeeding. Almost the instant that I had something sweet in my system – in this case it was those sugary dried pineapples – I began to crave sweets and felt like I would never be able to control my eating again. I believe that there is at least some addiction to sugar.