Sugar Can Make Addiction Like Cocaine

Sugar Can Make Addiction Like Cocaine. Not only just drugs, cigarettes and salt that makes people addicted, foods that contain lots of sugar also makes people addicted. Even the sugar addiction has a similar effect to cocaine on the brain.

Scientists in the United States recently conducted a study and found that food products sweetened with sugar or high fructose corn syrup foods can cause addictive as cocaine or nicotine.

Researchers found that when people are obese (overweight) and compulsive eaters shown pictures of their favorite, then the area of ​​the brain associated with decision-making (the orbital frontal cortex) will experience a surge of dopamine.

Sugar Can Make Addiction Like Cocaine

These brain areas also will be active when a cocaine addict is shown a bag of white powder (cocaine). That is, effects that occur in the brains of sugar addicts with a cocaine addict.

In studies conducted in mice also demonstrated that rats fed high fructose corn syrup will develop brain and behavioral changes similar to morphine-addicted rats.

"The data is so large, people in the field have to accept it. We found a remarkable effect between drug and food on the brain," said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, as reported by Dailymail, Thursday (11/03/2011).

According to Volkow, these findings are very significant and the results can help change the preferences of people are fond of eating.

"We're trying to develop treatments that interfere with pathological food preferences. Let's say you are addicted to ice cream, you are likely to get treatment that is blocking your passion for ice cream, but does not affect an interest in the meat," says Mark Gold of the University of Florida in Gainesville.