Sweet treats ‘like drugs’
EXCESSIVE sweets can be as toxic and harmful to physical and mental health as too much alcohol, a team of clinical psychologists has revealed.
Too many sugary treats can trigger metabolic, inflammatory and neurobiological processes that can lead to depression, the study in the journal Medical Hypotheses shows. Australian soft drink users were part of the analysis.
To keep the bah humbug out of the Christmas period, the researchers from Kansas University advise limiting sweet treats which are druglike in that they give an immediate mood lift.
“When we consume sweets, they act like a drug. They have an immediate mood-elevating effect but in high doses they can also have a paradoxical, pernicious longer-term consequence of making mood worse, reducing wellbeing, elevating inflammation and causing weight gain,” study author Professor Stephen Ilardi and author of The Depression Cure said.
Prof Ilardi has warned it might be appropriate to view added sugar, at high levels, as physically and psychologically harmful, akin to consuming too much alcohol.
The investigators analysed international research on the physiological and psychological effects of consuming added sugar, including the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study, the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study and studies of Australian and Chinese soda-drinkers.
Prof Ilardi recommended a minimally processed diet rich in plant-based foods and Omega-3 fatty acids for optimal psychological benefit.
“There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to predicting … how any person’s body will react to any given food at any given dose,” he said, suggesting a 25g limit of added sugars a day.