Sugar Is 'As Damaging' To The Brain As Abuse

A disturbing new study from researchers at the University of New South Wales has revealed that sugar may be as damaging to your brain as extreme stress or abuse.

Jayanthi Maniam and Margaret Morris published their disturbing finding on The Conversation – and the details aren’t pretty.

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Basically, they say that sugar attacks a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is important for memory and stress. It’s the same part of the brain that is directly affected by adverse experiences in early life such as emotional, physical or sexual abuse.

“People who were exposed to early life trauma have changes in the structure of their hippocampus,” explained the researchers. “In humans, those consuming the most “western” diet had smaller hippocampal volumes, in line with data from animal models.”

To reach the conclusion, Maniam and Morris conducted an experiment on mice, arguing that while it is impossible to perform such studies in humans, “the brain circuits controlling stress responses and feeding are conserved across species.”

It’s just another reason to quit sugar, or at least lessen your intake, according to the researchers.

“The fact that drinking sugar or exposure to early life stress reduced the expression of genes critical for brain development and growth is of great concern,” they commented.

The study is just one in a long line cautioning people against the adverse affects of sugar.

Cardiovascular research scientist, James DiNicolantonio, recently said he thinks sugar is as addictive as recreational drugs including cocaine.

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“When you look at animal studies comparing sugar to cocaine,” DiNicolantonio told Here & Now, “even when you get the rats hooked on IV cocaine, once you introduce sugar, almost all of them switch to the sugar.”

Either way, moderation is key.