PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - James J DiNicolantonio AU - James H O’Keefe AU - William L Wilson TI - Sugar addiction: is it real? A narrative review AID - 10.1136/bjsports-2017-097971 DP - 2018 Jul 01 TA - British Journal of Sports Medicine PG - 910--913 VI - 52 IP - 14 4099 - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/52/14/910.short 4100 - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/52/14/910.full SO - Br J Sports Med2018 Jul 01; 52 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.