ROLE OF SUGAR IN SUGAR ADDICTION: A REVIEW FOR BIOLOGICAL PLAUSIBLE REASONS
*Dr. Geeta Rani, Dr. Manjunath B. C., Dr. Adarsh Kumar, Dr. Ritu Phogat, Dr. Saumya Singh and
Dr. Anuradhha
ABSTRACT
Background: A lot of substances are associated with addiction and in recent times, sugars are also considered in the group but with lack of proper evidence. There is a necessity to find the plausible reasons. Objectives: To find out the evidences whether sugar has addiction potential in Humans or not. Material and Methods: A systematic literature survey was carried out in electronic databases such as PubMed, Medline, Scopus, Embase, Science direct, and Cochrane database with key words, sugar addiction, and sugar abuse. Original articles published in English language since 10 years were selected. Results: The search resulted in 260 research articles out of which 18 articles were selected which fulfilled the objective of the study. Most of studies for sugar addiction have been done on laboratory animals. These studies showed that sugar and other sweet substances result in production of neuro-chemical substances such as Dopamine in brain of these animals. In Humans evidences showed that sugar and other sweet substances increased cerebral blood flow in right nucleus accumbens after intake of high glycemic index meal. The evidence is limited by the difficulty in comparing different types of rewards and psychological experiences in humans. Conclusions: There is some evidence of sugar addiction among laboratory animal models which gives biological plausible answers but the same may not be true among humans. More research is necessary among human subjects to verify the link of sugar as addictive substance.
Keywords: Sugar, Addiction, Biological plausibility, Dopamine.
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