Sugar activates opioid receptors without binding to them
...and other findings on the biology of refined sugar consumption
The following is an excerpt from p. 88-90 of Chapter 2, “Sugar is the Knife: The World’s Favorite Drug” from my book, Drugism (2022):
[Continued from "The World's Favorite Drug."]
What does sugar do to our bodies, you wonder? Or, more likely, you already know. Tooth decay, that ever-present nuisance, is primarily caused by voracious sugar intake. While cavities, false teeth, dentures, etc. are often symptoms of habitual sugar use, they are not stigmatized, unlike other physical indicators of drug use.
Consider “track marks,” for example, the punctures and scars left by habitual intravenous injection, which, because they may indicate illegal drug use, are therefore stigmatized. Someone with track marks may be anxious not to display them publicly, depending on the social scenario they find themselves in. Someone with a couple cavities, however, rarely has to consider such a worry. Tooth decay is so normalized as to be hardly noticeable. And it is rarely thought of as a side effect of a drug habit, which it (most often) is.
But tooth decay is perhaps one of the lesser damages wrought by sugar. Let’s examine what else happens when refined sugar enters the body. Refined sugars produce acidity in our body. This acidity irritates the esophagus, the stomach, and the duodenum, all of which are vital organs for digestion.[i]
The acidity produced by the sugar also damages our endogenous bacteria. Since most of our B vitamins are produced by these endogenous bacteria, excessive sugar consumption can, through the damage dealt to these bacteria, lead to B vitamin deficiency.[ii] The first documented case of drug resistant bacteria was identified in a diabetic ulcer, itself most likely caused by excessive sugar consumption.[iii] It is therefore quite possible that we have sugar (among other factors) to thank for the present danger of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Calcium and vitamin C are used in glucose and sugar metabolism.[iv] When refined sugar is introduced into the body it can leech calcium from our bones and produce vitamin C deficiency. Some scholars believe that it was the introduction of refined sugar that caused scurvy outbreaks, themselves attributed to vitamin C deficiency. Every population with scurvy was also a refined-sugar-consuming population. After scientists figured out vitamin C’s role in sugar metabolism, it became a commonly added ingredient in processed foods and sweets, as ascorbic acid, both to act as a preservative and to mitigate sugar’s depletion of our vitamin C.
Refined sugars, after being metabolized, are stored in the liver. When that is no longer manageable, they start to accumulate in the kidneys, and around the heart.[v] Unaddressed, refined sugar consumption can lead to kidney failure, heart disease and obesity.
As mentioned earlier, our body’s equilibrium depends on the steady metabolism of glucose. Glucose is obtained from the carbohydrates in our food. The level of glucose in our blood is mediated primarily by two hormones, insulin and glucagon. Our bodies evolved to metabolize carbohydrates on a daily basis, but not refined sugar. Just as the habitual consumption of any refined drug can disrupt the body’s equilibrium and produce drastic health problems, so can sugar.
Like any drug, sugar’s physical effects are inseparable from its mental effects. From the moment we even see something sweet, it is already exercising psychoactivity. As anthropologist Donald Symons wrote in 1979,
The existence of the human sweet tooth can be explained, ultimately, as an adaptation of ancestral populations to favor the ripest—and hence the sweetest—fruit. In other words, the selective pressures of times past are most strikingly revealed by the artificial, supernormal stimulus of refined sugar, despite the evidence that eating refined sugar is maladaptive.[vi]
The (highly variable) mental effects of sugar consumption are familiar to everyone in the modern world. We have all seen the effect(s) candy has on children; most if not all of us experienced it ourselves. Perhaps some of our most vivid memories from childhood revolve around candy—evidence of the sheer psychoactivity of the sugar experience itself.
A clinical study from Yale found that consumption of sweets results in extreme increases in adrenaline levels.[vii] Adrenaline produces a whole host of effects itself, and it is only one of the many neurotransmitters stimulated by refined sugars. Sugar also activates our opioid receptors.[viii] In fact, sugar meets all but one of the criteria to qualify as an opioid itself.
According to Merriam-Webster, opioid refers to “any substance—natural or synthetic, opium-derived or not—that binds to opiate cell receptors and induces sedation, analgesia, and euphoria.” Sugar meets all but one of these criteria. It activates—but does not bind to—opioid cell receptors. For this reason, sugar is not, in the strictest sense, an opioid. However, although the sucrose itself does not bind to our opioid receptors, it does activate them. As a result, sugar meets the rest of the criteria for opioids: it induces sedation, analgesia, and euphoria.[ix] So while sugar is technically not an opioid, it is opioid-like in its effect profile.
Sugar a programmable matter to attack opioid receptors.
Crystals are programmable & hold data.
Is sugar not a crystalline substance? Great article!