sugar addiction

The following article argues that sugar is addictive, and that sugar addiction is practically being thrust on our kids.

So:
Is sugar addictive?
And: Is this whining and refusing to take responsibility for yourself and your kids, of is it is run-amock greed on the part of the sugar industry which shold be curbed?

"Sugar addiction is making our children – and Big Food – fat

Sugar, scientists now agree, is addictive. This does not mean, as the rightwing press would say, that weak people eat themselves into immobility from choice or an existential mini- roll-themed death wish; it means that it affects the neural pathways in consumer brains and makes them want more, even against their judgment.

Global consumption of sugar has tripled in the last 50 years, creating an obesity pandemic.

"There has been another victory for Big Food. Some products are considered too unhealthy to advertise on children's TV, but there is always online, where marketing can be even more insidious. Big Food is skilled at enticing children on to computers, with infant pleasures. Kellogg's has Krave superheroes. Chupa Chups has Chuck, a gormless gonk. Nesquik has a bunny rabbit. Here, sugar is a child's best friend. Here, children meet cartoon characters that will take them on an adventure to obesity, giving them gifts along the way."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...n-big-food-fat

"In 2008, Nicole Avena published data[4] stating that sugar affects opioids and dopamine in the brain, and thus might be expected to have addictive potential. She references "Bingeing," "withdrawal," "craving" and "cross-sensitization" are each given operational definitions and demonstrated behaviorally with sugar bingeing as the reinforcer. These behaviors are then related to neurochemical changes in the brain that also occur with addictive drugs. Neural adaptations include changes in dopamine and opioid receptor binding, enkephalin mRNA expression and dopamine and acetylcholine release in the nucleus accumbens.

Recent behavioral tests in rats further back the idea of an overlap between sweets and drugs. Drug addiction often includes three steps. A person will increase his intake of the drug, experience withdrawal symptoms when access to the drug is cut off and then face an urge to relapse back into drug use. Rats on sugar have similar experiences. Researchers withheld food for 12 hours and then gave rats food plus sugar water. This created a cycle of binging where the animals increased their daily sugar intake until it doubled. When researchers either stopped the diet or administered an opioid blocker the rats showed signs common to drug withdrawal, such as teeth-chattering and the shakes. Early findings also indicate signs of relapse. Rats weaned off sugar repeatedly pressed a lever that previously dispensed the sweet solution.[5]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_addiction