WHY is soda so addicting? Has anyone figured it out?

EricCowperthwaite

I keep hearing that diet sweeteners have similar effects on the craving side of the house as sugar does. Have not seen any evidence or research to support that. If true, though, it would be the same impact psychologically.

tigersword

Sugar triggers dopamine release in the brain. Dopamine creates a sense of euphoria and is usually linked to rewarding behavior. Your brain wants more of the euphoria reward. Cocaine is another chemical that acts on the brain's dopamine system and creates the same sort of euphoria reward addiction cycle.

Eating releases dopamine. Sugar isn't special. In fact, ANYTHING you do that aids in your continued existence for 5 more minutes releases dopamine, no food or drugs required.

mountaingirl2207

I have been addicted to diet soda for all of my adult life. I finally kicked the habit by just deciding that I wasn't going to buy it anymore. I went about 2 months without any and now I let myself have one once in a while but only when I go out to eat. No more endless 12 packs in the pantry. Its worked really well - now I usually get one if I take my kids somewhere to eat and only have a few sips. Now my addiction is ice water... I let the ice melt just enough and then eat that!

etoiles_argentees

Sugar triggers dopamine release in the brain. Dopamine creates a sense of euphoria and is usually linked to rewarding behavior. Your brain wants more of the euphoria reward. Cocaine is another chemical that acts on the brain's dopamine system and creates the same sort of euphoria reward addiction cycle.

Eating releases dopamine. Sugar isn't special. In fact, ANYTHING you do that aids in your continued existence for 5 more minutes releases dopamine, no food or drugs required.

Exactly, Tiger. Dopamine? What about GABA?

Reward and Punish: Say Hello to Dopamine’s Leetle Friend

Dopamine recruits a helper to track drug rewards.

Ah, dopamine. Whenever it seems like researchers have finally gotten a bead on how that tricky molecule modulates pleasure and reward, and the role it plays in the process of drug and alcohol addiction, along come new findings that rearrange its role, deepening and complicating our understanding of brain function.

We know that the ultimate site of dopamine activity caused by drugs is the ventral tegmental area, or VTA, and an associated structure, the nucleus accumbens. But dopamine neurons in the VTA actually perform two distinct functions. They discriminate acutely between the expectation of reward, and the actual reward itself. Pavlov showed how these dual functions are linked, but the manner in which dopamine neurons computed and then dealt with the differences between expectation and reward—a controversial concept known as reward prediction error—was not well understood.

We all know about reward and punishment, however. Years ago, behaviorism’s emphasis on positive and negative reinforcement demonstrated the strong connection between reward, punishment, and learning. As Michael Bozarth wrote in “Pleasure Systems in the Brain,” addictive drugs “pharmacologically activate brain reward mechanisms involved in the control of normal behavior. Thus, addictive drugs may be used as tools to study brain mechanisms involved in normal motivational and reward processes.”

But how does the evolutionary pursuit of pleasure or avoidance of punishment that guarantees the survival of an organism—fighting, fleeing, feeding, and… fornicating, in the well-known “4-F” configuration—become a pathological reversal of this function? To begin with, as Bozarth writes, “the direct chemical activation of these reward pathways does not in itself represent any severe departure from the normal control reward systems exert over behavior…. Simple activation of brain reward systems does not constitute addiction!”

What does, then? Bozarth believes addiction results from “motivational toxicity,” defined as deterioration in the “ability of normal rewards to govern behavior.” In an impaired reward system, “natural” rewards don’t alter dopamine function as strongly as drug rewards. “Direct pharmacological activation of a reward system dominates the organism’s motivational hierarchy at the expense of other rewards that promote survival,” Bozarth writes. The result? Drug addicts who prefer, say, methamphetamine to food.

How does an addict’s mind become so addled that the next hit takes precedence over the next meal? A group of Harvard-based researchers, writing in Nature, thinks it may have a handle on how the brain calculates reward expectations, and how those calculations go awry in the case of heavy drug and alcohol use.

The dopamine system somehow calculates the results of both failed and fulfilled expectations of reward, and uses that data in future situations. Cellular biologists, with some exceptions, believe that dopamine neurons effectively signal some rather complicated discrepancies between expected and actual rewards. Dopaminergic neurons were, in effect, computing reward prediction error, according to the theory. They were encoding expectation, which spiked when the reward was better than expected, and fell when the reward was less than expected. As Scicurious wrote at her blog, Neurotic Physiology “If you can’t predict where and when you’re going to get food, shelter, or sex in response to specific stimuli, you’re going to be a very hungry, chilly and undersexed organism.” (See her excellent and very readable post on dopamine and reward prediction HERE. )

But nobody knew how this calculation was performed at the cellular level.

Enter research mice.

As it turns out, dopamine is not the whole story. (A single neurotransmitter rarely is.) Dopaminergic neurons account for only about 55-65% of total neurons on the VTA. The rest? Mostly neurons for GABA, the inhibitory transmitter. “Many addictive drugs inhibit VTA GABAergic neurons,” the researchers note, “which increases dopamine release (called disinhibition), a potential mechanism for reinforcing the effects of these drugs.” By inhibiting the inhibitor, so to speak, addictive drugs increase the dopamine buzz factor.

The researchers used two strains of genetically altered mice, one optimized for measuring dopamine, the other for measuring GABA. The scientists conditioned mice using odor cues, and offered four possible outcomes: big reward, small reward, nothing, or punishment (puff of air to the animal’s face). Throughout the conditioning and testing, the researchers recorded the activity of neurons in the ventral tegmental area. They found plenty of neurons with atypical firing patterns. These neurons, in response to reward-predicting odors, showed “persistent excitation” during the delay before the reward. Others showed “persistent inhibition” to reward-predicting odors.

It took a good deal of sorting out, and conclusions are still tentative, but eventually the investigators believed that VTA dopamine neurons managed to detect the discrepancy between expected and actual outcomes by recruiting GABA neurons to aid in the dendritic computation. This mechanism may play a critical role in optimal learning, the researchers argue.

Furthermore, the authors believe that “inhibition of GABAergic neurons by addictive drugs could lead to sustained reward prediction error even after the learned effects of drug intake are well established.” Because alcohol and other addictive drugs disrupt GABA levels in the brain’s reward circuitry, the mechanism for evaluating expectation and reward is compromised. GABA, dopamine’s partner in the enterprise, isn’t contributing properly. The ability to learn from experience and to accurately gauge the likelihood of reward, so famously compromised in active addiction, may be the result of this GABA disruption.

Naoshige Uchida, associate professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard, and one of the authors of the Nature paper, said in a press release that until now, “no one knew how these GABA neurons were involved in the reward and punishment cycle. What we believe is happening is that they are inhibiting the dopamine neurons, so the two are working together to make the reward error computation.” Apparently, the firing of dopamine neurons in the VTA signals an unexpected reward—but the firing of GABA neurons signals an expected reward. Working together, GABA neurons aid dopamine neurons in calculating reward prediction error.

In other words, if you inhibit GABA neurons through heavy drug use, you screw up a very intricate dopamine feedback loop. When faced with a reward prediction error, such as drug tolerance—a good example of reward not meeting expectations—addicts will continue taking the drug. This seems nonsensical. If the drug no longer works to produce pleasure like it used to do, then why continue to take it? It may be because dopamine-active brain circuits are no longer accurately computing reward prediction errors. Not even close. The research suggests that an addict’s brain no longer registers negative responses to drugs as reward errors. Instead, all that remains is the reinforcing signals from the dopamine neurons: Get more drugs.

[Tip of the hat to Eric Barker (@bakadesuyo) for bringing this study to my attention.]

Cohen, J., Haesler, S., Vong, L., Lowell, B., & Uchida, N. (2012). Neuron-type-specific signals for reward and punishment in the ventral tegmental area Nature DOI: 10.1038/nature10754

CoraGregoryCPA

It's not, it's totally determined by you and your own addictions.

I'm not addicted to soda.. but I am addicted to sweets.. chocolate, ice cream, donuts, cake's, cupcakes, etc.

Some people are addicted to salty foods.

ldrosophila

Sugar triggers dopamine release in the brain. Dopamine creates a sense of euphoria and is usually linked to rewarding behavior. Your brain wants more of the euphoria reward. Cocaine is another chemical that acts on the brain's dopamine system and creates the same sort of euphoria reward addiction cycle.

Eating releases dopamine. Sugar isn't special. In fact, ANYTHING you do that aids in your continued existence for 5 more minutes releases dopamine, no food or drugs required.

Or the continuation of the species or the fact shoes make your feet look hot total dopamine and endorphin release...ahhhhhh what a fix!

tsh0ck

wait a minute ... I see knowledgeable people bringing science into this ... is that socially acceptable on MFP?

skellington27

it is SO addicting, especially Dr Pepper and Diet Coke!!

I used to drink a couple cans a day but then I stopped buying it at home and just having it when I go out, then I switched jobs and now have a soda fountain right by my office. Not helping!! I recently decided to give it up, or at least see if I can go a few months without it and hopefully that will reduce the cravings. I'm on day 3 and my co-workers are joking that I'm going to end up taking up smoking if I keep resisting pop lol

ldrosophila

SUGAR IS just as ADDICTIVE as any drug that is ILLEGAL, so it's not just soda you can be addicted to its anything with SUGAR! Sugar really is a toxic to our systems.
Don't even get me started on diet soda.

So true. I was hooked on fruits and vegetables really bad this one time. I had a 5 to 13 servings-a-day habit. It was hell. smh
And don't even get me started on the BREADS!

Hmm actually your raise a good point how come you dont see a vegetable addiction? Although some people eat carrots too excess. If it's just sugar are we only talking about sucrose or is fructose addictive what about lactose? Could someone have a honey or maple syrup habit? Personally for me the combination that makes me feel like a Roman emperor is pure cane sugar sometimes brown and straight butter. It like a straight hit to my veins. What makes these substances more likely to be abused and why? Hmmmm something to think about?

Sweets1954

The sugar is addicting and so is the caffine. I think many like it because of the fizziness. You can substitute soda (or any fizzy water but not tonic water) with a little juice to get the same affect without all the sugar, caffine, and chemicals. I have heard some have purchased the soda stream and like that better than regular soda.

Elf_Princess1210

Zevia is a good sub, but unfortunately I have yet to kick the diet soda habit (yes i know, evil liquid Satan)

dangerxbadger

Poor grammar makes posts so interestive...
If you like sugar, aren't diabetic, it fits in your macros, and you can live with being addicted to a soft vice, then what is the problem?

melbournemummy79

I was drinking 2-3 liters of coke a day.
Used to justify it by saying it was my caffeine fix as I didn't drink tea of coffee.
It took me three weeks to stop that and now I drink diet coke.. and I have rules. Two cans a day max... no more than 6 a week. I buy the cans from the supermarket and put them in the fridge. When they are gone they are gone.
Still too much soda IMO, but given I have given up drinking alcohol at the same time completely I am happy to say to myself its really the lesser of two evils.

Elf_Princess1210

SUGAR IS just as ADDICTIVE as any drug that is ILLEGAL, so it's not just soda you can be addicted to its anything with SUGAR! Sugar really is a toxic to our systems.
Don't even get me started on diet soda.

So true. I was hooked on fruits and vegetables really bad this one time. I had a 5 to 13 servings-a-day habit. It was hell. smh
And don't even get me started on the BREADS!

Hmm actually your raise a good point how come you dont see a vegetable addiction? Although some people eat carrots too excess. If it's just sugar are we only talking about sucrose or is fructose addictive what about lactose? Could someone have a honey or maple syrup habit? Personally for me the combination that makes me feel like a Roman emperor is pure cane sugar sometimes brown and straight butter. It like a straight hit to my veins. What makes these substances more likely to be abused and why? Hmmmm something to think about?

Well, crap. Everything we eat turns to glucose in the bloodstream, and our brains only recognize glucose as fuel.......so yeah. Excessive sugar intake isn't good.

dangerxbadger

Soooo.... How many of you started turning tricks to get a Dr. Pepper? Anybody stealing from their job to buys some Oreos?




Addicting

Yayyyyyyyyyy
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junebaby21

Gahh, I just read on article on this but can't seem to find it.

Pop manufacturers go to great lengths to create beverages that have multiple flavors - which tricks the mind into thinking you are not satisfied because there is not one taste being tasted. So you want more. And more!

I used to have 1 can of Diet Mt Dew a day, but then switched to a carbonated water called Sparkling Ice. No sugar, no carbs, no calories, no sodium. It helped transition me from the pop. But like I said, I only had 1 a day. Don't have any advice if you are a pop junkie :drinker:

dakittenrightmeow

How I Quit Soda....

Yeah, I agree all soda is bad. Diet has chemicals that trigger hunger and non diet has sugar which triggers chemicals in your brain similar to addiction.

BUT the important thing is to kick the habit. So here's what I did.

First, never drink diet. and never drink any with high frutrose corn syrup (hfc). Then I pretty much just had mexi-cokes, the ones still made with real sugar, not the chemically created HFC.

But I still craved soda. So I started buying club soda and my favorite juice (raspberry lemonade). I would mix the two. First it was 3/4 juice, and a bit of club soda. It satisfied my sugar and fizzy craving. Slowly, over a few months I decreased the amount of juice and increased the amount of club soda. Now, if I want juice or soda, I put about a 1/4 c of juice (usually cranberry 100% juice) in about 1 3/4 c club soda. Or a can of club soda with ice and some fresh squeezed lime or lemon. Its all it takes to satisfy that craving and now with far less sugar/carbs and no chemicals, no added sugar, no hfcs.

I do still get a soda once in a while (about 1 mexi-coke or real sugar soda every 2 months) and love it. I usually regret it because I immediately start craving it for the next few days. But I just drink some club soda for a few days until I stop craving the soda.

Hope that helps someone out.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

Soooo.... How many of you started turning tricks to get a Dr. Pepper? Anybody stealing from their job to buys some Oreos?




Addicting

tigersword

Gahh, I just read on article on this but can't seem to find it.

Pop manufacturers go to great lengths to create beverages that have multiple flavors - which tricks the mind into thinking you are not satisfied because there is not one taste being tasted. So you want more. And more!

I used to have 1 can of Diet Mt Dew a day, but then switched to a carbonated water called Sparkling Ice. No sugar, no carbs, no calories, no sodium. It helped transition me from the pop. But like I said, I only had 1 a day. Don't have any advice if you are a pop junkie :drinker:

Um, what? Satiety has absolutely nothing to do with having more than one taste being tasted. The average food item, like say, meat, has several hundred individual tastes in it. Same with any other food you can name. Greens? Thousands of flavor compounds in an individual green. Fruits? Also thousands of flavor compounds.

That article you read sounds like it was making up stuff.

Contrarian

I don't find it addictive at all.