Sugar is NOT Addictive, So Please Stop Saying or Believing That
Nor are TVs, smartphones.
I’m sure that a bunch of my friends feel that I’m rather pedantic, when I protest and complain about science journalism or documentaries (always extremely biased, those POS films are) that say things are “addictive.” Things like sugar, or TV, or smartphones, you know? Well, this meme sums up why.
Yes, any of those things can stimulate reward pathways in the brain. Lots of other things do, too, such as puppies, sex, beautiful sunsets, gazing deeply into the eyes of someone you love, meeting a friend whom you haven’t seen in years, seeing snow for the first time, hearing beautiful music…….all kinds of things.
But that doesn’t make ANY of them “addictive.”
Has anyone you know ever gone through delirium tremens while stopping the consumption of sugar? Anyone who has decided to stop using their smartphone – have you ever been willing to rob a store or kill someone to get access to it again? Did you literally think you were going to die, because your brain almost shut down and your heart was tachycardic, blood pressure dropped like a rock, because you didn’t get enough sugar?
Obviously not. For people who have suffered from true addiction to alcohol, meth, heroin, cocaine, etc., to call sugar “addictive” is an insult and it diminishes the severity of their experience.
There is no such thing as “moderation” in meth, cocaine, heroin, etc, but it is absolutely possible to consume sugar in moderation.
Can excess sugar kill you? Sure……..but it will take decades to do so, unless you’re diabetic. Can you “overdose” on sugar? Sure, but you’d have to try and eat something like a 1lb bag of sugar at one time, and ain’t nobody gonna do that.
So please……..don’t ever use the word “addiction” to describe anything except true medical addiction. Words have power, even when they are wrong, and believing that sugar is in the same class as alcohol, meth, heroin, etc warps perceptions and understanding of what is normal, and what isn’t.