Think You Are Addicted To Sugar? The Truth Might Surprise You
Feel like you can’t trust yourself around sweets? That you’re addicted to sugar? Let’s unpack the science behind sugar addiction — and explore what’s actually going on when you feel out of control around food.
What sugar addiction advocates say
Proponents of food addiction argue that highly palatable foods — especially those high in sugar and fat — activate the brain's reward centers in ways that mimic addictive drugs. Dopamine surges. Cravings increase. Some research even shows overlap in brain imaging between food-seeking and drug-seeking behaviour.
Sounds compelling, right? But the story isn’t so simple.
Engaging pleasure pathways ≠ addiction
Yes, sugar lights up the brain’s reward system. But so do a lot of things:
→ Music
→ Hugging someone you love
→ Patting your dog
→ Watching your sports team win
→ Even falling in love
That’s because pleasure is not a bug in the system — it’s a survival feature. Sweetness was an evolutionary signal that food was energy-rich and not poisonous. If eating didn’t feel good, we simply wouldn’t have survived as a species.
The truth is: just because a behaviour activates the reward system doesn’t make it an addiction. Otherwise, we’d be talking about “hug addiction” and “music rehab.”
But… aren’t there studies on rats that prove sugar is like cocaine?
Here’s the catch: almost all of the research comparing sugar to addictive drugs comes from studies on rats. And not just any rats — rats that were deliberately food-deprived.
In these studies, rats given intermittent access to sugar after periods of restriction showed binge-like behaviour and neurochemical changes. But when rats had free access to both regular food and sugar, the so-called “addiction” vanished (Avena et al., 2008).
Translation: the binge-like response wasn’t about sugar alone — it was about the restriction.
Sound familiar?
The problem with ‘sugar addiction’ in humans
When we look at human research, the evidence for sugar addiction gets murky. Many studies rely on self-reports or tools like the Yale Food Addiction Scale — a questionnaire that’s been heavily criticised for capturing symptoms of binge eating disorder, not a true biochemical addiction (Ziauddeen & Fletcher, 2013).
Plus, these studies often don’t account for:
History of dieting or restriction
Emotional eating
Disordered eating patterns
The role of guilt and shame in eating behaviour
When these factors are accounted for, the “addiction” often disappears.
If it’s not an addiction… Why does it feel so real?
Because something is happening — but it’s not addiction in the way we understand it with drugs or alcohol.
Here’s some examples of what might actually be going on:
Physical restriction: You’re not eating enough (and/or are particularly restricting carbohydrates), which leads to a primal drive to eat.
Mental restriction: You’re making foods ‘off bounds’ which intensifies cravings for those foods or your eating the cake but beating yourself up for it, which further intensifies cravings as you promise yourself it ‘won’t happen again’.
Emotional eating: Sugar becomes a quick fix for stress, boredom, loneliness and social disconnect, or overwhelm.
The restrict–binge cycle: You try to avoid sugar → feel deprived → eventually binge → feel ashamed → try harder to restrict again.
Over time, this pattern can feel exactly like addiction — even though it’s a predictable biological and psychological response to deprivation.
But I still feel out of control…
That makes so much sense. And I want to validate that your experience is real, even if the “addiction” label might not be accurate.
In fact, for some people, calling it an addiction feels relieving. It removes the shame of “why can’t I just stop?” and places the blame on sugar itself. But there’s a downside — because if you believe you’re addicted, the only solution becomes abstinence.
And abstinence from food? Not realistic. Not healthy. And definitely not sustainable.
A different way to heal
We actually have great evidence for helping people who feel out of control around food: it’s called exposure and habituation. In other words, bringing the “trigger foods” back in — with support — so your brain learns they aren’t dangerous (Tylka et al., 2015).
When people are given permission to eat previously forbidden foods, and support in building trust with their bodies again, the urgency around those foods fades. Cravings become less chaotic. Food loses its emotional charge. Bingeing slows down or stops.
In other words, you get to be in the driver’s seat again.
Final Thoughts
I’m not here to argue with anyone’s lived experience. If the label “sugar addiction” resonates with you, that’s valid.
But I also believe we deserve better than shame-based labels and abstinence-only solutions. You’re not broken. You’re not weak. And you’re definitely not addicted to sugar in the way we understand addiction.
You may feel out of control around food — but there is a way forward that doesn’t involve cutting sugar out of your life forever. As nutritionist Isabel Foxen Duke once said:
“You can’t be out of control around something you’re not trying to control.”
If you're ready to get curious — not restrictive — about your relationship with food, I'd love to support you. Because the answer to feeling better isn’t at the end of another diet.
References
Avena, N. M., Rada, P., & Hoebel, B. G. (2008). Evidence for sugar addiction: Behavioral and neurochemical effects of intermittent, excessive sugar intake. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 32(1), 20–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2007.04.019
Gearhardt, A. N., Corbin, W. R., & Brownell, K. D. (2009). Preliminary validation of the Yale Food Addiction Scale. Appetite, 52(2), 430–436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2008.12.003
Tylka, T. L., Calogero, R. M., & Daníelsdóttir, S. (2015). Is intuitive eating the same as flexible dietary control? Their links to each other and well-being could provide clarity for the field. Eating Behaviors, 19, 29–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2015.06.007
Ziauddeen, H., & Fletcher, P. C. (2013). Is food addiction a valid and useful concept? Obesity Reviews, 14(1), 19–28. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-789X.2012.01046.x
