Thursday, January 8, 2009
Sugar Addiction: Real??
We have all learned about the addicting qualities that the four groups of drugs possess, but in fact a new study shows that sugar addiction is very real. Professor Bart Hoebel and his team in the Department of Psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute have been studying signs of sugar addiction in rats for years. Until now, the rats under study have met two of the three elements of addiction. They have demonstrated a behavioral pattern of increased intake and then showed signs of withdrawal. His current experiments captured craving and relapse to complete the picture. In experiments, the researchers have been able to induce signs of withdrawal in the lab animals by taking away their sugar supply. The rats' brain levels of dopamine dropped and, as a result, they exhibited anxiety as a sign of withdrawal. The rats' teeth chattered, and the creatures were unwilling to venture forth into the open arm of their maze, preferring to stay in a tunnel area. Although this isn't entirely conclusive for humans, researchers stated that it could be used to help people with eating disorders by adding sugar to a regular part of their diet.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
This person did a very nice job of summing up the article. I've always thought that sugar is somewhat addicting, you have some, you want more. I didn't know that an experiment based on sugar addiction was being tested on rats. I would of liked to know more about how they think humans can be addicted to it, being that, sugar is not a poison nor does it contain elements that are harmful to the body. I would have also liked to know if they have tried this on people who have eating disorders. Overall, nicely done!
I think that Joe did a great job with this review. Particularly, i think he was able to provide the reader with a quick summary that focused on the key points of the article. In addition, i liked that he chose an interesting topic related to what we are covering in class and was also able to accurately explain how sugar has been tested and why it may be considered addicting. Two things that could have perhaps bettered the review would have been stating the third element of addiction that the rats have not displayed yet and more information on how sugar may affect humans. Overall, I learned how a substance as simple as sugar may actually be addicting.
Post a Comment