Is sugar more addictive than drugs?
More addictive than Heroine?
Let’s talk about SUGAR… It’s been shown to “produce more symptoms than is required to be considered an addictive substance.”1 Some have even suggested that it is more addictive than Heroine!
Researchers at Princeton found that sugar was actually as addictive as heroine and cocaine! 2 If you have ever attempted to limit your sugar intake, chances are you have felt that! High sugar diets have been linked to many chronic diseases. We are seeing these become more common all the time. Things like Diabetes and even cancer.
Sadly, sugar is in almost everything. If you are trying to live a healthy lifestyle and encourage your children to do the same, chances are you are working to cut back the sugar in your daily life and diet. You may think that active kids and adults actually need sugar. You would think this is especially true during and just after exercise. Let’s take a look and see if that is actually true.
A Harvard study has concluded that “Your body doesn’t need to get any carbohydrate from added sugar.” 3 Your body actually makes all the carbohydrates it needs. In fact, most Americans eat an over abundance of carbs in their everyday diet and would actually do well to consume less carbohydrates overall in the form of both food and drink. So, the notion that pumping ourselves full of sugary drinks labeled as “energy drinks” is flawed. It’s the electrolytes that we need to be replacing as we sweat or fast and deplete our stores of those precious nutrients.
“Your body doesn’t need to get any carbohydrate from added sugar.” – Harvard Study
It’s a shame to think that while doing things that are building our health, like exercising or Intermittent Fasting, we might be negating some of the benefit by replenishing our bodies with a highly addictive substance that we don’t even need to consume! Sugar is simply not necessary and can contribute to a host of health problems down the line.
Many of the popular energy drinks contain not only sugar, but also some other ingredients that are even worse than sugar. Things like high fructose corn syrup. High Fructose Corn Syrup consumption has been linked to weight gain, obesity, and even fatty liver disease!4 Those types of drinks would best be avoided in favor of high-quality electrolyte replacement drinks that contain.
- DiNicolantonio JJ, O’Keefe JH, Wilson WL. Sugar addiction: is it real? A narrative review. Br J Sports Med. 2018 Jul;52(14):910-913. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2017-097971. Epub 2017 Aug 23. PMID: 28835408.
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/why-high-fructose-corn-syrup-is-bad#3.-Increases-your-risk-of-obesity-and-weight-gain
- https://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/sugar-addictive-cocaine-heroin-studies-suggest-article-1.356819
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/why-high-fructose-corn-syrup-is-bad#3.-Increases-your-risk-of-obesity-and-weight-gain
