Fight the Sugar Addiction

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  • albertabeefy
    albertabeefy Posts: 1,169 Member
    While I'd also never consider the huff-post the bastion of sound-science ... It's important to remember that 2500 years ago they said the world was flat. 40 years ago they claimed nicotine wasn't addictive.

    It's only been a couple decades that we've really researched food or sugar addictions. Especially with sugar the research is in its infancy.

    And yes, although there's not yet what we'd call a preponderance of undeniable evidence as to sugar or carbohydrate addiction, there's enough evidence that the DSM-V now recognizes food as addictive, has a heading on 'binge-eating disorder', includes new behavioural disorders it didn't previously, etc. This was because more-and-more research is showing support for the idea, as well as many, many people in the addictions-counseling field pushing for the discussion and inclusion.

    I'd technically classify it as a behavioural addiction rather than a substance-use one - and there certainly seems to be an individual component that doesn't seem to fit everyone ... but to completely deny it's existence in the face of more and more research that supports and an expert consensus (DSM-V) doesn't make much sense.

    There's a couple excellent reviews an discussions here:

    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763414002140
    http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/6/9/3653
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    Mycophilia wrote: »
    Unless you've given a handy for some candy, you aren't addicted to sugar.

    :laugh:
  • stephmph16
    stephmph16 Posts: 114 Member
    Bear in mind I'm a newb when it comes to nutrition, but not a moron, can someone explain how sugar isn't addictive? Most the articles I'm seeing online say in big bold letters "sugar is addictive", but here people are scoffing at that idea. I just want to know where I'm getting information from.
  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
    edited January 2017
    stephmph16 wrote: »
    Bear in mind I'm a newb when it comes to nutrition, but not a moron, can someone explain how sugar isn't addictive? Most the articles I'm seeing online say in big bold letters "sugar is addictive", but here people are scoffing at that idea. I just want to know where I'm getting information from.

    I just wanted to say there is so much misinformation out there even among experts. Keep an open mind and consider the sources of your reading along with your own experience.

    While I don't think sugar is addictive as studies show its not, it is something that is pleasurable and in that sense people can go overboard because the initial reward is, well yummy:).
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    Mycophilia wrote: »
    Unless you've given a handy for some candy, you aren't addicted to sugar.

    I thought I had asked you to stop following me around. :rage:
  • stephmph16
    stephmph16 Posts: 114 Member
    Thanks all for your thoughts!
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    stephmph16 wrote: »
    Bear in mind I'm a newb when it comes to nutrition, but not a moron, can someone explain how sugar isn't addictive? Most the articles I'm seeing online say in big bold letters "sugar is addictive", but here people are scoffing at that idea. I just want to know where I'm getting information from.

    I sugar is addictive, we've been addicted since the dawn of time...sugar is nothing new...humans have been consuming sugar in various forms since the dawn of time.

    As articles, magazines, documentaries, and other media goes...they have to sell...SUGAR ADDICTION makes for a great headline and click bait. Also, most articles and other media misinterpret data at minimum...but most have a bias and they cherry pick things from various studies and neglect to tell the whole story.

    Beyond that, most of the things people claim to be addicted to in regards to sugar are actually a highly palatable and pleasing combination of sugar and fat...but nobody ever mentions the fat...just the sugar...because fat scaring is out and sugar scaring is in.

    That said, most people who eat the SAD could stand to reduce their consumption...sugar in and of itself isn't an issue...over consumption is, regardless of sourcing. Over consumption of sugar is fairly rampant and is an issue, particularly if one isn't particularly active.

    This is spot on.
  • albertabeefy
    albertabeefy Posts: 1,169 Member
    astrampe wrote: »
    Beyond that, most of the things people claim to be addicted to in regards to sugar are actually a highly palatable and pleasing combination of sugar and fat...but nobody ever mentions the fat...just the sugar...because fat scaring is out and sugar scaring is in.
    This is mostly true. There are also studies which show that fat intake alone elicits the same responses in the pleasure centers of the brain, as well as sugar alone.

    This is why I think the focus is moving (at-least in scientific circles) to "food addiction" rather than "sugar addiction" or "carbohydrate addiction". While certain people may have a food addiction that is centered in sugar, others may find it's fat, and others may find it's a combination of the two. Or whatever.

    So yes, sugar isn't addictive in the same way cocaine is addictive. But it's addictive TO SOME PEOPLE (by stimulating reward/pleasure centere in the brain) in the same way gambling is addictive TO SOME PEOPLE. Behaviourally. As such, the more general term "food addiction" is what has become accepted by addictions professionals as well as meeting the addiction criteria specified in the DSM-V.

  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    stephmph16 wrote: »
    Bear in mind I'm a newb when it comes to nutrition, but not a moron, can someone explain how sugar isn't addictive? Most the articles I'm seeing online say in big bold letters "sugar is addictive", but here people are scoffing at that idea. I just want to know where I'm getting information from.

    Usually "sugar is addictive" means "our body responds positively to consuming sugar, which is true. We respond similarly to consuming fat, btw, and most of all to combinations of the two (or fat, carbs, and salt).

    Sometimes it means people can begin eating in a dysfunctional or hedonistic way, to stifle feelings or just for fun, basically detached for the purpose of fulfilling hunger, which is also true, but that again is not just sugar (more highly palatable foods that are a combination of ingredients, like sugar and fat, again) and also behavioral, not physical.

    What strikes me about the claim is that it is, first, not necessary to explain what people are trying to explain (why people eat more than they need to maintain a healthy weight). We evolved in an environment where food was more scarce than not and we had to be able to go without eating for a period of time (which tends to make us feel hunger less, counter-intuitively) and to eat when food is available, not only if we happen to be particularly hungry. Later in our history we tended to have cultural restrictions on eating. The current environment is rare, and liking food is not the same thing as addiction.

    Second, and even more significantly, people who claim to be "addicted" to sugar usually couldn't care less about that white stuff on its own. I personally managed to get quite fat (although I lost it) while thinking the idea of eating sugar out of the jar seemed disgusting. What seems delicious and hard to resist for me are specific sugary treats (again, that all have fat in them, as well as other ingredients), and yet different sugary treats that are chemically basically the same interest me not at all and I wouldn't want to eat more even if I ate one. That's nothing like addiction, IME -- it's akin to claiming to be addicted to wine but not gin, or even cabernet but not syrah.
  • atjays
    atjays Posts: 797 Member
    astrampe wrote: »
    Cocaine is addictive, sugar is not - your body would not go into life threatening withdrawal if you don't get sugar, you will just crave it....

    I agree that you're correct. But my god my body hated me years ago when I went full Keto. Those were a miserable two weeks even if it wasn't life threatening. The body still has a very strong reaction to sudden absence of sugar.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited January 2017
    On the other hand, I do think the behavioral issue exists to greater and lesser degrees (I am sure BED is related to addictive behaviors, at least, and believe that super morbidly obese people usually have some kind of eating addiction going on). I don't find it especially helpful to think of it as addiction (to me it has some similarities and responds to some of the same strategies, but is vastly different in kind -- I really don't see food, for the vast majority of fat people, becoming the center of the life and crowding out all else that should be important like job, loved one's, enjoyment of other things, that I see with drug and alcohol addictions or probably gambling or the like. However, if someone does find that model useful I think that's fine and maybe it can be helpful. (I think claiming that loving chocolate or having trouble with emotional eating or not continuing to eat when you indulge in the chips at a Mexican restaurant -- all of which I 100% relate to -- is EXACTLY LIKE drug addiction or even WORSE as some here do sometimes is just silly, though, and loses credibility with me, as well as seeming callous -- to those who have to deal with drug addicts in their lives, at the least.)

    Oh, final thought for now: those sites on the internet often infuriate me, because they are trying to make money by defining people as not normal, as having a problem that needs their (paid for) help, and often combined with tests for addiction that are created so the vast majority of people would supposedly have a problem based on the results.
  • LilacLion
    LilacLion Posts: 579 Member
    I am addicted to sugar (and alcohol actually) and it's a very real thing. Abstinence from both is my choice.
  • LINIA
    LINIA Posts: 1,159 Member
    Sugar feeds cancer as well as being addictive......cut out the sugar, there is nothing to recommend it. Our bodies don't need sugar.
  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
    edited January 2017
    Sugar isn't an addictive substance, but the behavior of eating it can be addictive, as is the case with other behavioral addictions -- gambling, sex, collecting, work, shopping, eating ...

    The only behavioral addiction specifically called out in DSM-5 as far as I can see is gambling addiction -- under "Non-Substance-Related Disorders". From p. 481:
    ... Other excessive behavioral patterns, such as Internet gaming, have also been described, but the research on these and other behavioral syndromes is less clear [than that for gambling]. Thus, groups of repetitive behaviors, which some term behavioral addictions, with such subcategories as "sex addiction", "exercise addiction", or "shopping addiction", are not included because at this time there is insufficient peer reviewed evidence to establish the diagnostic criteria ...

    And from p. 329, the chapter on Feeding and Eating Disorders:
    .... Some individuals with disorders described in this chapter report eating related symptoms resembling those typically endorsed by individuals with substance-use disorders, such as craving and patterns of compulsive use ...

    But again, DSM-5 is not prepared to go so far as to call out an eating addiction -- at least at this point in time. I won't be surprised if the next release of DSM does call out additional behavioral disorders. The important thing to keep in mind in this context is -- there's nothing special about sugar, or salt, or fat, or any other food substance. It's the desire for eating them and the satisfaction derived that comprise the addiction, not some special property of the sugar, or salt, or fat.

  • elphie754
    elphie754 Posts: 7,574 Member
    LINIA wrote: »
    Sugar feeds cancer as well as being addictive......cut out the sugar, there is nothing to recommend it. Our bodies don't need sugar.

    Nope
  • albertabeefy
    albertabeefy Posts: 1,169 Member
    vingogly wrote: »
    ...But again, DSM-5 is not prepared to go so far as to call out an eating addiction -- at least at this point in time. I won't be surprised if the next release of DSM does call out additional behavioral disorders. The important thing to keep in mind in this context is -- there's nothing special about sugar, or salt, or fat, or any other food substance. It's the desire for eating them and the satisfaction derived that comprise the addiction, not some special property of the sugar, or salt, or fat.
    Most clinicians treating food addictions have found that many (if not a majority) of food-addiction cases they treat meet all the criteria/characteristics for BED according to the DSM-V.

    When specifically discussing why 'food addiction' wasn't listed in the DSM as it's own disorder, Dr. Charles O'Brien (Chair of the substance-abuse working group for the DSM-V) stated:
    The problem is that, at present, the precise nature of these disturbances and how the neurobiology of eating disorders resembles and differs from the neurobiology of substance-use disorders is unknown. We, and the members of our Work group, wholeheartedly endorse research to understand this important overlap.”
    Basically, there needs to be more research for it to have it's own distinct inclusion - and with the working groups' findings on how it relates to substance abuse, I'd suspect that research is already underway.
  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
    albertabeefy wrote: »
    Most clinicians treating food addictions have found that many (if not a majority) of food-addiction cases they treat meet all the criteria/characteristics for BED according to the DSM-V.

    That's true -- however, where people here and elsewhere might get into trouble is believing there's something special about sugar that makes it addictive. And I've run into plenty of people with multiple behavioral addictions in my work with clients. Avoiding sugar isn't necessarily going to address the underlying reasons for the behavioral addiction and I have to wonder whether a consumption disorder based around sugar might be transferred to the consumption of something else, or some other behavior. I don't think we know at this time.
    Basically, there needs to be more research for it to have it's own distinct inclusion - and with the working groups' findings on how it relates to substance abuse, I'd suspect that research is already underway.

    That's why I said "I won't be surprised if the next release of DSM does call out additional behavioral disorders".
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    LilacLion wrote: »
    I am addicted to sugar (and alcohol actually) and it's a very real thing. Abstinence from both is my choice.

    According to your diary, you ate 91 grams of sugar today :smirk:
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