Drinking beverages sweetened with sugar suppressed cortisol and the brain’s stress responses — an effect that was lacking for drinks sweetened with aspartame, found a new study…
“This is the first evidence that high sugar – but not aspartame – consumption may relieve stress in humans,” said the corresponding author of the study, Kevin Laugero, PhD, at the department of nutrition at University of California Davis. “The concern is psychological or emotional stress could trigger the habitual overconsumption of sugar and amplify sugar’s detrimental health effects, including obesity.” The sugar group also had significantly lower nausea (P=0.041), researchers found…
He added that their study didn’t look at the question of whether sugar is addictive. “But cortisol has been linked to addictive behaviors, probably through its actions on certain pathways in the brain…
Just wanted to add that sugar is legal and cheap, unlike cannabis.
All Things Chronic 