Could many of us be slaves to our sweet tooth? New research in rats suggests that the brain can become dependent, if not outright addicted, to sugars in food.

The brain has opioid compounds and they seem to be released by palatable tastes such as sugar, fat, ice cream, cake.

Numerous studies have shown that the activity of the nucleus accumbens, an area in the forefront of the brain, is key to the "high" sought by abusers of cocaine, amphetamines, nicotine and other addictive substances. Drug intake stimulates receptors in the nucleus accumbens to release high levels of opioids as well as dopamine, the neurochemical thought to be a driving force behind drug-seeking behavior.

Because the nucleus accumbens is also involved in regulating normal feeding, food might induce similar behavioral responses.

Researchers fed rats a sugary solution for 12-hour periods over a number of weeks, then either abruptly cut off the rodents' supply of the sweet treat or gave them a drug that blocked the brain's opioid receptors.

The result? Compared with rats fed regular chow, sugar-fed rats developed "mild" symptoms indicative of withdrawal, such as teeth-chattering, an increased frequency of high-pitched crying and anxiety. And when researchers allowed these rats renewed access to sugar they "binged" -- consuming up to 30% of their daily sugar intake within the first hour of re-introduction.

Subsequent laboratory investigation of the brains of sugar-fed rats showed an accelerated growth of dopamine receptors in the nucleus accumbens, indicative of a growing dependence on sugar.

The behavior of the rats in the study is similar to patterns seen in drug abuse and withdrawal.

Bingeing, especially, is very important. If you take in a lot of food at once you're going to get a lot of dopamine and opioids all at once -- that's a little like getting a small shot of amphetamine and morphine.

Taste, rather than calories, seems to trigger this neuro-behavorial process. Rats fed saccharin displayed similar dependent behaviors to those fed sugars, even though saccharine contains no calories.

Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Society Toronto June 17, 2001

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

This study is not yet published but it is MOST interesting in that it supports something I have been promoting for some time. Namely, just because a sugar substitute does not have any calories, it is still capable of inducing addictive changes in the brain. Anyone who has taken elementary psychology classes is likely familiar with the classic Pavlov dog experiments in which Dr. Pavlov was able to condition the dogs to salivate not only to a meal, but a sound that was associated with the meal. A similar principle is in operation here and is one of the reasons that the artificial sweeteners (saccharin, Nutrasweet, and the new one Sucralose) and even herbal sweeteners like Stevia can contribute to this problem. Most people do not realize that they can become physically dependent on sugars and their immediate precursors, grains. If you have problems with high insulin levels, such as high blood pressure, extra weight, diabetes, or high cholesterol then you most likely would be best served by avoiding grains and sugars. I have been promoting this approach for the last six years and am very familiar with how hard it is for most people to do this. Most people know what they need to do, but are unable to resist the food cravings due to strong emotional attachments to the food(s). Fortunately, I recently became acquainted with Emotional Freedom Technique. For the last three weeks we have been using this in our office to help our patients remove their addictions to certain foods. EFT was put together by Gary Craig and is a derivative of Thought Field Therapy that was developed by Roger Callahan. TFT was my first introduction into energy medicine and I learned that in 1998. However, I really enjoy EFT as it is much more streamlined and seems to achieve fabulous results by balancing one's energy meridians while saying positive affirmations about the addiction in question. I use a derivative of the technique that is presented in the manual that I learned from purchasing all the videos that Gary offers on the site. It is much more streamlined and seems to work even better than the original technique that Gary developed. Related Articles: Dangers of Sugar Thought Field Therapy