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If sugar is as addictive as certain drugs or nicotine, can you detox using the same medication? “Yes,” say Australian researchers. Are they cheering too soon?
Treating Sugar Addiction Like Nicotine Addiction
Researchers from Queensland University of Technology say, based on their research, that medication used to combat a smoking addiction can be used to overcome a sugar addiction. In rats, at least. They published their findings in the scientific journal PLOS ONE[1].
The research was published last April, but I wanted to bring it to attention again.
“Excess sugar consumption has been proven to contribute directly to weight gain. It has also been shown to repeatedly elevate dopamine levels which control the brain’s reward and pleasure centres in a way that is similar to many drugs of abuse including tobacco, cocaine and morphine.
Masroor Shariff, Queensland University of Technology
Shariff refers to how sugar increases dopamine levels in the brain, which is a crucial part of the reward system. However, as consumption increases, the rise in dopamine becomes less, requiring more for the same experience. Similar to alcohol and drug addictions.
They tested various addiction medications and their effect on rat sugar consumption.
For the first part of their study, they used a group of rats that were administered varenicline (used against tobacco addiction) for 12 weeks. They had access to two drinking bottles, one with water and another with a 5% sugar solution. They could choose what to drink, and the bottles were alternated left or right.
Below are the results. Above the results after 4 and 8 weeks regarding sugar intake. Below is the effect on saccharin intake after 4 weeks.
Similar effects were observed when other “anti-addiction medications” were administered, such as mecamylamine and cytisine.
“Cold Turkey”?
“Just detoxing” from sugar would be difficult, according to the researchers, because of the disrupted dopamine levels.
“Like other drugs of abuse, withdrawal from chronic sucrose exposure can result in an imbalance in dopamine levels and be as difficult as going ‘cold turkey’ from them,”
Tweets last year sounded “Treating the sweet tooth as an addict” when the article came out. And if you read the press release about the study, that makes sense. However, if you take the trouble to study the research itself, you’ll notice something strange. A phrase that, for some reason, questions the entire study or at least its implications:
Furthermore, in contrast to the effect of varenicline on sucrose and saccharin consumption in short-term (4 weeks) sucrose-consuming animals on the intermittent-access protocol, varenicline did not decrease sucrose consumption in animals on continuous-access to sucrose short-term (4 weeks) (Data not shown)
Wait, what? Apparently, when testing varenicline, the rats were given access to sugar water according to two different methods. Alternating every 24 hours (1 day sugar water and water available the next day only water) and continuously. All the nice results mentioned and shown through the graphs show the results of alternating access to sugar water.
If the rats had continuous access to sugar water (as people also have access to sugars every day), then the result did not appear! Then, with the other drugs, only alternating access to sugar was tested. Yes, I understand that your research looks more interesting if you don’t show this data.
I don’t follow the explanation given for this research setup. I also don’t understand why this is mentioned in passing and not brought up again in the discussion at the end of the research. Especially since people normally have daily access to sugars, this seemed relevant to me.
All in all, reason to question the direct value of this research. Nevertheless, this is once again a step towards more understanding of the struggle some people have to control their eating behavior. I certainly welcome that.
References
- Masroor Shariff, Maryka Quik, Joan Holgate, Michael Morgan, Omkar L. Patkar, Vincent Tam, Arnauld Belmer, Selena E. Bartlett. Neuronal Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Modulators Reduce Sugar Intake. PLOS ONE, 2016; 11 (3): e0150270 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150270
- Paul M. Klenowski, Masroor R. Shariff, Arnauld Belmer, Matthew J. Fogarty, Erica W. H. Mu, Mark C. Bellingham, Selena E. Bartlett. Prolonged Consumption of Sucrose in a Binge-Like Manner, Alters the Morphology of Medium Spiny Neurons in the Nucleus Accumbens Shell. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 2016; 10 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00054
