ONE MACAROON AT A TIME –
Feb. 7, 2024 – Professor Serena Bartlett is an addiction neuroscientist. She has studied sugar and its effects on the brain. “Sugar uses exactly the same neural pathways as alcohol and nicotine, it’s physically changing your brain.” Sugar addiction is real and should be treated in much the same way as other addictions.
The childhood element is down to conditioning. We were all trained to see sugar as the reward for enduring the horror of vegetables, for reaching a birthday, a way to celebrate Halloween, Christmas, the end of the school day—and the list goes on. Professor Bartlett says that those in less sugar-obsessed societies do not feel the immediate pull of sweet things: a cupcake would not have the same appeal to someone growing up in a remote location without access to sweets or cause for celebration.
