A new study from Aarhus University has found that sugar intake alters the same part of the brain that creates a drug addiction. The research showed that by using the reward-processing circuitry of the brain, sugar tricks the brain to respond to it like other drugs, encouraging you to repeat the behavior that caused you to feel pleasure.
Sugar and the brain
The researchers studied the effects of sugar on seven female minipigs by looking at their opioid and dopamine receptors under PET imaging.
They fed them a sucrose solution for an hour a day for 12 days and then waited 24 hours after the last dose to see if their brains had changed.
“After just 12 days of sugar intake, we could see major changes in the brain’s dopamine and opioid systems,” explains Michael Winterdahl, associate professor at the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus. “In fact, the opioid system, which is that part of the brain’s chemistry that is associated with well-being and pleasure, was already activated after the very first intake.
More specifically, the scientists saw changes to the:
- thalamus
- amygdala
- striatum
- nucleus accumbens
- cingulate cortex
- prefrontal cortex
Why use pigs?
Although rats are often the animal of choice for experiments like this because their brains are similar to humans, the rodents’ ability to help regulate metabolism and weight gain can be very different than humans.
Pigs’ have a more complex brain than rats and pigs’ brains are large enough to use human brain scanners and take imaging of deep brain structures.
Still, the results on humans might prove to be different because we are more difficult to control and our dopamine levels can be affected by a variety of factors.
“[Humans] are influenced by what we eat,” explains Winterdahl, “whether we play games on our phones, or if we enter a new romantic relationship in the middle of the trial, with potential for great variation in the data.”
