Is Sugar Really More Addictive Than Cocaine?
I recently saw Kingsman's new movie, and there's a scene where someone asked Poppy to pass the sugar and she said:" But it's really bad for you, Eight times more addictive than cocaine, Five times more likely to cause death, But it's legal...so, you go ahead.Knock yourself out." which inspired me to write this article, So I did a bunch of research and here we go !
Should sugar be considered an addictive drug ?
What is sugar?
It's the white stuff we all know and love a.k.a Sucrose ( Table sugar 'C12H22O11' ) composed of 12 atoms of carbon, 22 atoms of hydrogen, and 11 atoms of oxygen (C12H22O11). It’s found naturally in many plants and in particular their roots, fruits and nectars, because it serves as a great way to store energy.
What is Cocaine?
Cocaine, also known as Coke/Blow/Snow, a fine, white, crystal powder and a powerfully addictive stimulant drug made from the leaves of the coca plant(a blackthorn bush grown in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru), Although it can be used for valid medical purposes, cocaine is an illegal drug.
How Does Too Much Sugar Affect Your Body?
For starters, Sugar lights up the brain's reward center, it will surge your Dopamine levels: One of the brain's four main 'feelgood' chemicals 'endorphin, oxytocin, serotonin and dopamine' therefore flooding your emotions with happiness, as a result, you want to eat more and you will need a bigger hit of dopamine to get the same rush therefore more sugar rendering it addictive.
Sugar can also make your skin age faster by reducing its elasticity causing premature wrinkles, it can also cause a quick rise in glucose in the bloodstream, giving you that temporarily 'extra energy' which will eventually bottoms out, leaving you more sluggish later.
How Does Cocaine Affect Your Body?
Like Sugar, cocaine spikes dopamine levels, When too much dopamine is released into the brain, we use what we need to feel good, and the remainder is pulled back into the neurotransmitter that released it, but unlike sugar, Cocaine blocks the reuptake of the 'leftovers'. leaving the dopamine in the brain while releasing more dopamine, therefore, giving you that 'high' feeling, so when someone is feeling "high",he is not in a trance, feeling dizzy or feeling psychedelic. He is actually perfectly healthy.
So Is sugar really as addictive as cocaine?
Humans are biologically drawn to sugar, as it helps our bodies store fat. But, A recent research shows that intense sweetness can surpass cocaine reward, even in drug-sensitized and -addicted individuals and that it could would generate a supranormal reward signal in the brain which could override self-control mechanisms, leading to addiction, therefore you should limit your intake to avoid the aftereffects.
Some suggest that sugar should be considered an addictive substance, and could even be on a par with abusive drugs.
So YES sugar can be more addictive than cocaine.
References :
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Firstly I hold studies that claim that substance A is more addictive than substance B to a much higher standard of scrutiny, especially claims surrounding sugar. The reason is that in many cases, the addiction of one substance works on completely different neurological pathways then that of another. Now the reason why I am skeptical with sugar is there are articles making this claim that go back to 2013 with news articles (many of which do not cite a study) but I did find one study that can confirm these findings with similar skepticism as I have here but below this I am going to provide some studies that look at different mechanisms of cocaine:
[1] A study looking at the role that the mu-opioid receptors play in cocaine sensitivity (and more)
[2] An overview of the effects of cocaine on the endogenous opioid system.
[3] A study looking at how cocaine can cause the release of an endogenous opioid peptide.
Now these are 3 that are in slight controversy as they do not agree, a problem with most biological studies is that biochemistry is extremely complex and thus it is much more difficult to get truly repeatable results the more specific you go. So now lets look at some sugar research:
[4] Looks at the general question on whether sugar is addictive
[5] A overlook on what is required to resist the urge to eat.
[6] A study that denies sugar is addictive in humans.
I am not posting this to make you feel bad, more to give you some more research that you can use to back up or deny the claims of a single study. Now there is definitely science to support your claim and your post, for what was written, was written well. I would suggest, as justtryme did in the chat, to go a little more in depth. This is a topic that as tons of research put into it that can be used. If you have any questions, or want someone to read over a post of yours before you post it, just ask in the chat and people will gladly help you. Anyways the post was good, I do not want you to think otherwise. Since you can still edit it, one source that would be really good to have is this one here as it is educational material (by the way I believe the photo on this page is free to use for educational purposes, such as this post) and because it is educational material, it is made by people that study the field (unlike many articles written on blog/news sites) and it isn't a scientific study (meaning people take it more seriously)
My main tips are add some more resources and maybe flush some of the topics out a little more, otherwise the post is good.
You're totally right and i feel grateful for this comment.The fact is studies can be controversial and you can't give all the aspects on a simple post,so i had to decide ! Given that the majority of studies have found that sugar is addictive and stimulates the same pleasure centers of the brain as cocaine or heroin ,it's very likely to believe that it can be addictive.Besides Princeton researchers who fed rats sugar water discovered that they ended up binging on it. When the rats were deprived, their feel-good brain chemical dopamine dropped, and they suffered from anxiety and the shakes.Also our body can make sugar on its own via Gluconeogenesis so basically we can't be totally deprived like the lack of cocaine.
I personally completely agree with your conclusion, I just think that a little extra research added and used to flush your topics out would do wonders. I truly hope to see more science posts from you!
This should have been a post!
@stempede while I am uncertain about the intention of that comment, my reply truly has little in terms of context relating to the topic. Something that I think would be interesting is a post that uses research to directly counter the conclusion of this post, as there is research to support both sides. Another way to approach it would be a series of questions asked about the subject and then answers are provided for both sides, kind of like a debate, and then readers can determine, from arguments presented with data, on how to interpret the data. I mean if I were to write it thats how I would approach this topic!
Exactly what I meant, a response post to this one to start debate, we need more of that on here
Well I attempted to write it, I must say that it definitely felt rushed and convoluted to me but I wanted to get it out while this one still hasn't paid out. I don't know. It is here
not sure about this
People correlate addiction with general symptoms such as : dizziness,fever,throwing up,sweating ....
This is not the case with sugar because our body can create carbs via specific cycles.The addiction is measured based on the effect on the brain via different chemicals.
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