There has been a lot of talk in recent times about sugar. Now, don’t get me wrong, sugar is an essential part of the human body. It is used for both immediate and stored energy for molecular and cellular functions, in which require the glucose and fructose molecules that are found in sugar. Simply put, without sugar, your body would not work, and you would probably be dead. Recent studies have found, however, that sugar is more like a double-edged sword in your diet.

Sugar, whether you believe it or not, is highly addictive and comparable to a drug. Sugar is a powerful pleasure; your brain, in the way of operant conditioning, treats sugar as a positive reinforce and aims to find more sources of this pleasure. Continual reinforcement of this positive reward will end in a habitual condition of wanting, perhaps even needing sugar. This is the start of an addiction. Cocaine addiction undergoes the same process: cocaine releases dopamine, a pleasuring hormone that creates reward reinforcement in your brain, and this turns into a habit, and finally this habit turns into an addiction. Sugar, however, in one study, actually outperformed cocaine as the stronger source of pleasure in the brain region of rats and a stronger addictive substance.

Another study in 2011 should that people suffering from addictions in food showed similar symptoms and similar brain reactions likened to those of drug addiction. Of course, there are lots of things that can cause habit like this, like other drugs, sex, porn, gambling, adrenaline, and even exercise, simply because activities can reinforce your behaviour by activating this brain circuit. This should not be equated as saying that you should refrain from activates that introduce these effects, but rather refrain from too much of it.

There are other advantages from limiting your sugar intake. Sugar, in high amounts, has been

linked to serious health problems such as various forms of cancer, obesity, diabetes, and heart problems. Although sugar feeds all cells, including cancerous, fructose may absorb even more by some cancerous tumours. Sugar, when in excess, will transform into fat, and increase weight gain to obesity if not limited. The average American is said to eat about one-third of a pound of sugar in a day. This will add up. Diabetes and heart problems are widely known at this point, but that doesn’t make them any less of a threat. The obesity that can be correlated with high sugar intake also correlating to higher cholesterol and in effect a higher chance of heart problems like stroke or heart disease.

It is problems like these that should scare you into a better diet. Prepare more foods with less sugar, give up soda for a while, or consume some protein to curb that sugar addiction. It’s not easy, but it is doable.