Could a diet high in refined sugars make children and adults more susceptible to opioid addiction and overdose?
New research, from our laboratory of behavioral neuroscience at the University of Guelph, suggests it could.
Approximately 20,000 people died of fentanyl-related overdoses in the US last year and in Canada there were at least 2,816 opioid-related deaths. During 2017, so far, over 1,000 people have died of illicit drug overdoses in British Columbia.
High schools are stocking up on the overdose-reversing drug naloxone and universities are training staff to administer the drug.
Nobody is talking about sugar.
And yet there is substantial experimental evidence that refined sugar can promote addictive behaviors by activating the brain’s rewards centers in much the same way as addictive drugs.
