Do you know sugar is 8 times as addictive as cocaine? Yes a study conducted on rats in 2007 proved that sugar is 8 times as addictive as cocaine. In that study rats are forced to have either sugar water or cocaine water 8 times a day. They almost picked the sugar water every time. So the researchers concluded that sugar is more addictive than cocaine. But how this will work on humans.
Several natural drugs are available in nature like fermented barley and tobacco leaves. When they are consumed as raw or without much processing they are not dangerous. Even though consumption of tobacco leaves will cause cancer in human beings it takes a long period to cause this hazardous effect in humans. They will really become problematic when they are refined.
For example we all are aware of a drug called morphine which is derived from opium. Actually this was used as a painkiller in 1850’s. when this painkiller is exposed to patients, many of them become addicted to it. In the later period morphine is further refined and introduced as a new drug called heroin. Likewise cocaine is also derived from the coco leaves, a natural substance. This coco tree leaves are traditionally used to give some energy boost to the farmers. Also subsequent use of these leaves in day to day life will not cause a significant effect on their body. Because the amount of addictive substance present in coco leaves are less than 1 %.
Sugar Vs Cocaine
Generally to produce 300 grams of cocaine 1200 kilograms of coco leaves are needed. When the coco leaves get purified the intensity of a particular content will cause more release of dopamine in your body which results in the feeling of high satisfaction when you consume it. When you become addicted to eating the product in higher concentrations lower concentration or natural form will not give that much pleasure to your body. So you start craving to eat that substance at higher concentrations. In the case of sugar, it is a sweetener derived from sugar cane. Normally white sugar is 10 times as sweet as raw sugar cane stalk. So this concentration process has an effect in our body the same as cocaine do actually more than what cocaine does.
If we start to intake sugar in our regular diet our body becomes addicted to it. So over the period of time the amount we consume regularly is not enough to give the pleasure expected by our body. Because that’s how our system works. If we consume anything on a regular basis our body will quickly gets adapted to that activity. So that it can perform better and consistent. i.e., if you newly introduce sugar in your diet and take 25 g of sugar regularly, at starting dopamine(pleasuring harmone) will release more which insist you to take regularly(you are becoming addicted to that) and if it continues your body will resist to that 25 g of sugar. So after some time you cannot get the same amount of dopamine from 25 g of sugar. Then you start to eat more sugar to get the dopamine.
Sugar has No Nutrition
Unfortunately, we are not taking the sugar as it is. We are making many delicious dishes out of sugar or we will consume sugar by adding it to another product (drinking tea with sugar). The main problem of sugar occurs here because sugar is nothing but a carbohydrate. So it will not give any health benefit other than giving fuel to our body. Unfortunately, we are getting more than the required amount of energy from our regular diet. So in addition to that sugar adds more carbs to our body which ultimately results in obesity or diabetes and heart diseases to human beings.
Due to the addiction property of sugar, sugar is added in nearly 80 % of processed foods produced worldwide. You can find sugar in a processed foods like fruit juices, carbonated beverages, cakes and other bakery items, chocolates and so on.
If a food company needs to maximize their profit they should follow 2 criteria.
- One is the product should give some health benefits to the consumers
- The second one is it should taste good.
But many health foods will not taste that much good. So to promote that kind of products the strategy followed by the industry is addition of sugar.
You can easily enhance the taste of any food by adding sugar to it. So you are receiving some health benefits with added carbs. In this era, many consumers tend to eat low-fat foods, so many products have come into the market to attract a certain category of the population. So they are removing fat from the product which results in reduced richness and taste of the product. So to alter this property sugar is added. Now they market the product as low fat but this is more dangerous because unknowingly the sugar consumed by the consumer is going to convert as fat and stored in their body for a longer time.
Bliss point is a term the food industry uses to describe the point at which a product is most likeable for the majority of consumers. And the majority of consumers like more sugar than less sugar. So the bliss point is going to be the point at which the maximum amount of sugar has been added before the product becomes too sweet.
Many Names – One Function
Another important fact is food industry is using nearly 54 names of sugar without the word containing sugar like high fructose corn syrup, maltose, glucose, sucrose, fruit juice concentrate etc., many names but one function – adding carbohydrate. This is how even the more health-conscious people can end up consuming more than twice amount of daily intake of sugar without even knowing it.
So if you want to get rid of sugar addiction it will cause you to read a label with an enhanced knowledge about sugar and its derivatives when you buy a product and ultimate will power when you consume the sugar added product!