You’re Not Addicted to Sugar
Written by Laci Whipple, September 10, 2025
Here’s a hot take: “sugar addiction,” and “food addiction” for that matter, are not real addictions. These terms have been adopted by pop culture and even adopted by some scientists within our health system, with no evidence identifying their specific addictive properties (Greenberg & St. Peter, 2021). Culturally, we throw around the term “addiction” without awareness of the complexities of the psychological and physiological dependence behind addiction. Just because you love the feelings of pleasure associated with something doesn’t mean you’re addicted to it. In order to understand that sugar and food cannot be addictions, we first have to understand how the reward system of the brain and addictions work.
Reward Pathways
Brains are wired for survival, which is why we are rewarded for doing the things that contribute to our survival (and the human species as a whole) such as eating, sex, and so on. The reward system in the brain reinforces these actions with feelings of pleasure so that we’ll want to keep doing such behaviors. Bodies need food in order to survive; we eat food; it tastes good; we feel good; and we do it again the next day for the rest of forever. Simple. However, when this reward system gets hijacked by a substance or ritual, the brain starts to associate survival with this substance or ritual. When this association leads to the “persistent, compulsive, and uncontrolled behaviors that are both maladaptive and destructive,” (Adinoff, 2004; Guimaraes et al., 2017) and that’s when therapists can call it an addiction.
Let’s be clear, though: addiction involves the reward system of the brain, but not everything that activates the reward system of the brain is an addiction.
Eating Disorders as Addictions
Essentially, each main type of eating disorder (bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, binge eating disorder) and exercise dependence (Leuenberger, 2006; Davis & Claridge,1998) all involve addiction to influxes of different neurochemicals in the brain, not addiction to an external, chemical substance. Addiction is therefore the takeover of the reward system, telling your brain you cannot survive without that influx of neurochemicals or substance chemicals. Addiction is not simply the activation of the reward system that feels good. Binge eating disorder is the closest diagnosis to “food addiction” that exists, but it is not about the food and does not involve addiction to food. Binge eating disorder involves psychological factors, like trauma or food insecurity, and biological factors. There is research to support the biological aspect of binging, which is that it’s a direct response to restriction (Mathes et al., 2009). There is also evidence for starvation or restriction of any kind (i.e. dieting) leading to addiction-like behaviors because the survival mechanisms kick in (Keys et al.,1945).
In the world of addiction, eating disorders are tricky because we need food to survive.
Someone who suffers from alcohol addiction could choose to refrain from such a substance. Society loves to extrapolate this idea to sugar, claiming that we may need food to live, but we don’t need sugar. First, that’s not true, because glucose is the brain and body’s main source of energy (Mergenthaler et al., 2013). Glucose is the substance that all sugars (natural or refined) and carbs break down into within the body—the brain processes it the same.
Sugar: The Research
Drugs and food may share the brain’s reward system, but food consumption is also controlled by many other complex systems in the body where drugs are not, thus separating food from addiction models identified by leading experts (Greenberg & St. Peter, 2021). Research does not support that consumption of sugar or other specific foods causes overeating more than any other foods (Choo et al., 2015; Blanco Mejia et al., 2014; Hunt et al., 2020; Malek et al., 2018; Marriott et al., 2018). There is also no evidence to support that food and sugar have the same pharmacological effects on the brain as drugs of abuse, further removing the appropriateness of the addiction label (Fletcher & Kenny, 2013). Some studies conclude sugar activates blood flow in the same parts of the brain as cocaine, but these studies don’t touch on some important nuances: studies where eating non-sugar food, and where images or smells of food are presented instead of actual consumption, also activate the same parts of the brain (Brooks et al., 2013).
Issues with food, sugar, or eating disorders are never about the food.
As a clinician, I see the use of food to soothe emotions, protect from trauma, and to grasp at control. Drug addictions might start in the same way but lead to chemical dependency, whereas food or sugar does not. It might feel as though you’re addicted to sugar, but there is always a deeper reason for feeling like you’re addicted to any kind of food. When we acknowledge that, then we can ask ourselves:
What emotions am I trying to shove down?
Am I using food as a distraction from my past?
Where in my life do I feel that I have no control?
If you are searching for help answering questions like these, are in eating disorder recovery, have negative body image, or disordered eating, you’ve come to the right place. With guidance from my client-centered approach, you can rewrite your story with food to one that lets you live your life and still enjoy Grandma’s lemon pound cake. I would be honored to collaborate with you on a journey toward freedom from “sugar addiction.”
References:
Adinoff, B. (2004). Neurobiologic processes in drug reward and addiction. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 12(6), 305-320. https://doi.org/10.1080/10673220490910844
Blanco Mejia, S., Kendall, C. W., Viguiliouk, E., Augustin, L. S., Ha, V., Cozma, A. I., Mirrahimi, A., Maroleanu, A., Chiavaroli, L., Leiter, L. A., et al. (2014). Effect of tree nuts on metabolic syndrome criteria: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ Open, 4(e004660). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2013-004660
Brooks, S. J., Cedernaes, J., & Schiöth, H. B. (2013). Increased prefrontal and parahippocampal activation with reduced dorsolateral prefrontal and insular cortex activation to food images in obesity: A meta-analysis of fMRI studies. PLoS ONE, 8(e60393). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0060393
Choo, V. L., Ha, V., & Sievenpiper, J. L. (2015). Sugars and obesity: Is it the sugars or the calories? Nutrition Bulletin, 40(1), 88-96. https://doi.org/10.1111/nbu.12137
Fletcher, P. C., & Kenny, P. J. (2018). Food addiction: A valid concept? Neuropsychopharmacology, 43(12), 2506-2513. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-018-0203-9
Greenberg, D., & St. Peter, J. V. (2021). Sugars and sweet taste: Addictive or rewarding? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(18), 9791. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18189791
Guimarães, R. A., Mesquita, N. S., Lopes, R. S., Lucchese, R., Felipe, R. L., Vera, I., Fernandes, I. L., Castro, P. A., Monteiro, L. H. B., & Silva, G. C. (2017). Prevalence and factors associated with criminal behavior among illicit drug users: A cross-sectional study. Substance Use & Misuse, 52(11), 1393-1399. https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2017.1281316
Hunt, K. J., St Peter, J. V., Malek, A. M., Vrana-Diaz, C., Marriott, B. P., & Greenberg, D. (2020). Daily eating frequency in U.S. adults: Associations with low-calorie sweeteners, body mass index, and nutrient intake (NHANES 2007-2016). Nutrients, 12(2566). https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12092566
Keys, A., Brozek, J., Henschel, A., Mickelson, O., & Taylor, H.L. (1950) The Biology of Human Starvation (2 vols.), University of Minnesota Press.
Malek, A. M., Kelly, J. H., Diane, M. D., Greenberg, D., St. Peter, J. V., & Marriott, B. P. (2018). Reported consumption of low-calorie sweetener in foods, beverages, and food and beverage additions by U.S. adults: NHANES 2007-2012. Current Developments in Nutrition, 2(nzy054). https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzy054
Mathes, W.F., Brownley, K.A., Mo, X., & Bulik, C.M. (2009). The biology of binge eating. Appetite, 52(3):545-553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2009.03.005
Marriott, B. P., Hunt, K. J., Malek, A. M., St Peter, J. V., & Greenberg, D. (2018). Low-calorie sweeteners: Exploring underutilized database resources to understand dietary patterns and obesity. Obesity (Silver Spring), 26(S3), S5-S8. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22257
Mergenthaler, P., Lindauer, U., Dienel, G. A., & Meisel, A. (2013). Sugar for the brain: The role of glucose in physiological and pathological brain function. Trends in Neurosciences, 36(10), 587-597. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2013.07.001
Nitsch, A., Bauschka, M., & Cass, K. (2022, May 26). The intersection of medical, psychiatric and psychological interventions during medical stabilization [PowerPoint slides]. ACUTE Center for Eating Disorders & Severe Malnutrition Presentation for Eating Disorder Professionals of Idaho.