Brain Treats Sweets Like Drugs

Ever notice how it's impossible to eat just one Girl Scout cookie? Has your brain ever told you that you have to have another piece of chocolate?

Researchers in California found that the brain responds to sweet treats much the way it does to drugs so that feelings of addiction after that morning doughnut are not out of the question.

"There's no doubt that specific components of our food supply -- in particular, the big one is sugar -- clearly affect the brain in ways that morphine, nicotine, cocaine, cannabis and ethanol all do as well," said Dr. Robert Lustig of the University of California San Francisco.

Lustig and researchers are evaluating how processed foods trigger dopamine receptors in the brain that cause the body to become physically addicted.

"There are four criteria for addiction in humans: binging, withdrawal, craving and cross sensitization of other drugs of abuse," said Lustig.

Lustig believes you see all four of these factors when the body is given refined sugar. 

A UCSF lab test done on animals found they did not overeat when given their natural diet, but given the right stimuli -- in this case the stimuli were Oreo cookies -- the animals simply gorged themselves until all the cookies were gone. The same reaction was true when the animals feasted on Fruit Loops.

Chronic dieter Cristina Morrison said she can relate to that binge behavior.

"I love baked goods. I love sweets," said Morrison. "And I grew up with 'Clean your plate. Eat everything on your plate.'"

After participating in a blind study, Morrison lost 30 pounds. No more wine and cheese after work just because. She has kept the weight off by flagging her bad food habit, eating only when she's hungry, and being aware of how her body reacts to sweets. 

"I think when I drink Diet Coke, it makes me want a cookie, like they kind of go together," Morrison said. "It’s weird."

Not so weird, according to Lustig.  

"If you ask me, I think almost all of it is biochemical and there are specific biochemicals that are driving obesity," he said, making it super difficult to say no to dessert.

To help curb your addiction, researchers suggest you substitute fructose -- the natural sugar in fruit. They explain the body dissolves fructose more slowly, giving you a slight energy and mood lift, not a rush. Over time, the less processed sugar you take in, the sweeter the fruit will taste.

But if it comes down to an apple over a bag of Oreos, we all know that's a hard sell.