Wednesday, during a meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology in Scottsdale, Arizona, Bart Hoebel of Princeton University in New Jersey revealed that a study conducted on rats had showed that sugar could be addictive.

Moreover, he stated that tests had suggested that ingesting large quantities of sugar water prompted behavioral and neurochemical changes in rats much similar  to the ones substance abuse in animals and humans usually produced.

Hoebel also informed that the rats had even displayed signs of withdrawal and long-lasting aftereffects, which could have been translated as craving for sugar.

One of the experiments that the researchers performed entailed feeding a rat a breakfast of sugar water after for a period of three weeks, he had not been given anything to eat during nighttime. The result of the test found that the sugar water gave rise to a release of dopamine in the animal’s brain, which is a well known chemical reaction related mainly to substance abuse.

Nevertheless, Hoebel said that it was not the sugar per se that had such effects, but the large amount of it that they had given to the rats which rendered them addictive.

Another test showed that rats that had been fed sugar and afterwards prevented from eating it, consumed more than the first time when they had been yet again allowed to eat sugar water.

Furthermore, the animals who had been sugar-fed would drink more alcohol when given some than normal rats would.

In addition, the rodents also presented signs of hyperactivity similar to those prompted by a dose of amphetamine.

Although there has been no evidence so far that humans would react the same and that sugar was addictive for them as well, Hoebel and his team have stated that their finding could have implications regarding people suffering from bulimia or binge eating.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Mental Health.