Starches and sugars also fuel a positive feedback loop for appetite (made famous and somewhat exploited by the low-carb diet trend), and when you cut them down significantly while eating a balanced diet otherwise, you really do stop feeling knee-jerk cravings for extra food, for bread, pasta, checkout counter snacks and so on after only a couple of days. Finally, I’m not sure what Dr. Benton is referring to by implying that obese people don’t find sweet foods more attractive or attractive more often than normal-weight people, but I’ve noticed that several seriously overweight cooks of my acquaintance seem to produce party foods that are often unpalatably rich and bland for the rest of the group (try hiding a big helping of trifle behind your fork while making complimentary noises at the chef). It’s anecdotal but I think it makes sense that their satiety points for fat and sugar would be higher than normal. That still may not mean it’s addictive, but it does seem to have a preference-changing effect.

“… addicts would experience increased food cravings, predominantly for sweet items;”

Yes, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that this happens. Of course, anecdotal evidence isn’t admisable in science, but that only flies if there in fact has been any genuine study of increased cravings in putative sugar addicts. Has there been? If not, then anecdotal evidence, while not the gold standard, must be taken seriously rather than being ignored.

“… cravings would be especially strong in the morning, after an overnight fast;”

And again, lots of anecdotal evidence here, too. Actually, it shows up all the time in diet manuals–about the sugar crave & hit one gets with orange juice, donuts, bagels, etc.

“… obese people would find sweet foods particularly attractive”

Now this is just bizarre. Is the assumption that ALL obese people are also sugar addicts? Why in the world assume that? This is like saying that all drug users must be addicted to heroin–nonsense. There are lots of ways to use drugs, and many sorts that are addictive. Similarly, there are lots of ways to gain weight, sugar consumption being only one of them.

“… and high sugar consumption would predispose people to obesity”

Well, maybe. Unless they’ve got a rocket-charged metabolism, or are an athlete or otherwise very active, for example. As Marion always says, calories in, calories out.

Of course, I’ve only read the bit excerpted here, but based on that, I have… less than a lot of faith in Benton’s conclusions.

If I treat bready and sweet things like I treat alcohol (I’m a recovering alcoholic and have been sober since 1983), which is to say, not eat them at all, I can control my eating.

Seems pretty simple to me.

I’m not more saying that this is true of everyone and sugar is in and of itself “addictive,” any more than I’m saying that everyone who consumes alcohol is an alcoholic or likely to become one.

But clearly, some of us are.