Interestingly, research has repeatedly demonstrated that food addiction is virtually indistinguishable from the addiction to drugs. One substance long suspected of addictive potential is sugar. As noted in a November 2019 study, “Excessive sucrose consumption elicits addiction-like craving that may underpin the obesity epidemic.”
Using PET imaging along with beta-opioid and dopamine receptor agonists, the researchers were able to show how sucrose affects the brain chemistry in miniature pigs. Even a single exposure to sucrose produced as much as a 14% drop in carfentanil binding (a beta-opioid receptor agonist) in certain parts of the brain, consistent with opioid release.
In layman terms, sugar consumption triggered the release of natural opioids and dopamine in the animals’ brains, thus lowering the availability of those receptors. Reduced receptor availability is a sign of overstimulation, because when the brain gets overstimulated, it downregulates these receptors to prevent damage.
The drawback of
this protective mechanism is that you now need a higher dose of the
substance to get the same pleasure response, and this is a key mechanism
by which addiction develops....<<<Read More>>>...
