RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Sugar addiction: is it real? A narrative review
JF British Journal of Sports Medicine
JO Br J Sports Med
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine
SP bjsports-2017-097971
DO 10.1136/bjsports-2017-097971
A1 James J DiNicolantonio
A1 James H O'Keefe
A1 William L Wilson
YR 2017
UL http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2017/08/23/bjsports-2017-097971.abstract
AB In animal studies, sugar has been found to produce more symptoms than is required to be considered an addictive substance. Animal data has shown significant overlap between the consumption of added sugars and drug-like effects, including bingeing, craving, tolerance, withdrawal, cross-sensitisation, cross-tolerance, cross-dependence, reward and opioid effects. Sugar addiction seems to be dependence to the natural endogenous opioids that get released upon sugar intake. In both animals and humans, the evidence in the literature shows substantial parallels and overlap between drugs of abuse and sugar, from the standpoint of brain neurochemistry as well as behaviour.