HPC-UK Bitesize (Nutrition): Sugar Highs

A recent review of the research involving the analogy between addictive drugs, like cocaine, and hyper-palatable foods, notably those high in added sugar, added more leverage to the idea that we are living in what has been coined a ‘toxic food environment’. The food environment is the physical and social surroundings that influence what we eat. The ‘toxic’ part is how this current environment is making it harder to choose healthy foods, and all too easy to choose unhealthy food which then corrodes healthy lifestyles and promotes obesity. I have written previously about this purposely manufactured design, which you can find here: http://humanperformanceconsulting-uk.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/celebrities-nibblys-pope-and-bear.html

The review found that the available evidence suggests that in humans, sugar and sweetness can induce reward and craving that are comparable in magnitude to those induced by addictive drugs. Although the authors of the studies admit that this evidence is limited by the inherent difficulty of comparing different types of rewards and psychological experiences in humans, it is nevertheless supported by recent experimental research on sugar and sweet reward in laboratory rats.

Overall, this research did reveal that sugar and sweet reward can not only rival addictive drugs, like cocaine, but in fact on certain levels be even more rewarding and attractive. On a neurobiological basis, the neural effects of sugar and sweet reward appear to be more robust than those of cocaine, which the authors suggest might possibly reflect past selective evolutionary pressures for seeking and taking foods high in sugar and energy density.

The authors of this review concluded that the biological robustness in the neural effects of sugar and sweet reward may be sufficient to explain why many people can have difficultly in controlling the consumption of foods high in sugar when continuously exposed to them.

Reference:

Ahmed, Serge H; Guillem, Karine; Vandaele, Younaa. Sugar addiction: pushing the drug-sugar analogy to the limit. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care: July 2013 - Volume 16 - Issue 4 - p 434-439. doi: 10.1097/MCO.0b013e328361c8b8