Addiction to sugar: Interview with Dr Essoreke Tchaou, Nutritionist-Dietician

Addiction to sugar: Interview with Dr Essoreke Tchaou, Nutritionist-Dietician
Extract from the article: Nutritionist and dietician Essoreke Tchaou insists that the abundance of products rich in added sugars exposes the body to a real risk of addiction. Is sugar as addictive as drugs? What happens in the brain when we consume it?

« Beware: sugar is as addictive as alcohol or cocaine »

Nutritionist and dietician Essoreke Tchaou insists that the abundance of products rich in added sugars exposes the body to a real risk of addiction. Is sugar as addictive as drugs? What happens in the brain when we consume it?

Health-Education: Is sugar addiction like a drug?

Dr Essoreke Tchaou: Absolutely. It's important to remember that there are two kinds of addiction, one involving substances and the other behavioural - such as addiction to video games, compulsive shopping and so on. In both cases, the central element is the loss of self-control, which needs to be identified on the basis of a series of diagnostic criteria.

For example, the compelling, irrepressible and intrusive desire to use a substance. Or the desire or persistent efforts to stop or limit consumption - a criterion that is very often present. Or the fact of consuming more than desired: for example, with alcohol, it's the person who says they're going to have one or two drinks, but ends up downing two or three bottles.To come back to sugar, we tick off all these criteria.

Sugar influences the brain's reward circuits in a similar way to that observed when taking drugs. After just 12 days of sugar consumption, we can see major changes in the brain's dopaminergic and opioid systems. In fact, the opioid system, which is the part of the brain associated with well-being and pleasure, was already activated after the first intake.

How does sugar addiction differ from other types of addiction?

The difference lies precisely in the diagnostic criteria: the more criteria there are, the more pronounced the addiction.An addiction is considered mild when it meets two or three criteria, moderate when it meets four or five criteria, and severe when it meets six or more criteria.In the case of sugar, as with alcohol and tobacco, the majority of people affected have a moderate addiction. The question of withdrawal is an important one: going without sugar is incomparable with withdrawal from alcohol or opiates, but this can vary from one individual to another.

Above all, our studies and many others have shown and warned that sugar has the same addictive potential as the most addictive drugs in humans, including alcohol, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.We now know that chronic and prolonged consumption of sugar, like other drugs, leads to lasting biological changes in the brain.

How did we realise that sugar was a problem substance?

The difference lies precisely in the diagnostic criteria: the more criteria there are, the more pronounced the consumption of sugar, like other drugs, leads to lasting biological changes in the braindependence. An addiction is considered mild when it meets two or three criteria, moderate when it meets four or five criteria, and severe when it meets six or more criteria.

In the case of sugar, as with alcohol and tobacco, the majority of people affected have a moderate addiction.The question of withdrawal is an important one: going without sugar is incomparable with withdrawal from alcohol or opiates, but this can vary from one individual to another.

Above all, our studies and many others have shown and warned that sugar has the same addictive potential as the most addictive drugs in humans, including alcohol, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. We now know that chronic and prolonged consumption of sugar, like other drugs, leads to lasting biological changes in the brain.

Awareness of the problem dates back a little over a decade.We realised that the obesity epidemic was linked to a radical change in the food environment, with an abundance of industrial products rich in added sugars, including soft drinks.It was then suspected that some of those who over-consume sugar were losing their addictive control. There are several possible explanations.

In nature, where our species evolved, we find fruits that contain little sugar, whereas industry makes it possible to manufacture highly concentrated products. Our bodies are not prepared for these high doses, and a parallel can be drawn with the emergence of alcoholism, which dates from the invention of strong alcohols, or cocaine addiction, which did not exist when coca leaves were consumed.

What's more, our bodies are not capable of optimally metabolising sugar in liquid form, the kind found in food industry products. Finally, there is no such thing as "fat and sugar" in nature. A neuroimaging study has just shown that sugar combined with fat amplifies the activation signal of the reward circuit in our brain.

Interview by Abel OZIH

Author
santé éducation
Editor
Abel OZIH

Nutritionist and dietician Essoreke Tchaou insists that the abundance of products rich in added sugars exposes the body to a real risk of addiction. Is sugar as addictive as drugs? What happens in the brain when we consume it?

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