Heroin Addiction: Please Tell Me if Sugar Is Addictive?
Question by fatimahanif: Please tell me if sugar is addictive?
I am hooked on eating spoonful of sugar and I cant resisit. I eat almost 5-6 spoonful per day. How bad is it? What is the harm? How do I get off? Please serious advice only.
Best answer:
Answer by BeachSaint
In medical terms, a substance is addictive if it:
• induces a pleasant state or relieves distress,
• causes long-term chemical changes in the brain,
• leads to adaptive changes in the brain that trigger tolerance, physical dependence and uncontrollable cravings,
• causes dependence, so that abstaining is difficult and creates severe physical and mental reactions.
girl eating chocolate
Does sugar fit this profile?
Jan Ulbrecht, associate professor in biobehavioral health and medicine in the College of Health and Human Development, thinks not. “Since the human body does not become physically dependent on sugar the way it does on opiates like morphine and heroin, sugar is not addictive,” he argues.
“Despite the anecdotal reports of people who claim to be addicted to sugar, and seemingly endless websites devoted to sugar addiction,” says Cynthia Bartok, associate director for the Center for Childhood Obesity Research in Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development, “modern science has not yet validated that idea.” In medical terms, a substance is addictive if it:
• induces a pleasant state or relieves distress,
• causes long-term chemical changes in the brain,
• leads to adaptive changes in the brain that trigger tolerance, physical dependence and uncontrollable cravings,
• causes dependence, so that abstaining is difficult and creates severe physical and mental reactions.
girl eating chocolate
Shutterstock
Does sugar fit this profile?
Jan Ulbrecht, associate professor in biobehavioral health and medicine in the College of Health and Human Development, thinks not. “Since the human body does not become physically dependent on sugar the way it does on opiates like morphine and heroin, sugar is not addictive,” he argues.
“Despite the anecdotal reports of people who claim to be addicted to sugar, and seemingly endless websites devoted to sugar addiction,” says Cynthia Bartok, associate director for the Center for Childhood Obesity Research in Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development, “modern science has not yet validated that idea.”
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Heroin Addiction: Zanzibar plagued by growing heroin addiction
There are an estimated 9000 heroin addicts on the small East African island of Zanzibar – one of the highest rates of usage in the world. Zanzibar’s container port is along several key shipping routes that ferry the drug from Asia to big markets in the US and Europe. And residents say it is relatively easy to smuggle heroin on and off the island. Although the drug is illegal in Zanzibar, it is almost impossible for the authorities to know what goods are coming or going. Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb reports from Stonetown.
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