High-sugar diets, behaviour and substance use disorder risk
What it found
Eating a lot of sugar, especially during pregnancy and early life, was linked in animal studies to changes in mood, impulsivity and sensitivity to drugs of abuse.
Human data on sugar and substance use disorder are still lacking.
What they found
Studies in people
Sugar intake in people
Adults in the United States ate more than 28 kg of added sugar in 2008 and 2012. Average daily intake was 76.7 g in 2008 and 77 g in 2012, and 17 teaspoons a day for children and adults in 2017 to 2018.
Sugar and body weight
Clinical trials and epidemiological studies found that people who eat more added sugar, especially sugar-sweetened drinks, tend to gain more weight and have higher rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidaemia, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
Sugar and mood in people
Human research found that high consumption of foods rich in added sugars and sweetened drinks raised the risk of depression over the following years. In overweight people, more sugar-sweetened drinks went with more diagnoses of depression.
Animal and lab studies
Brain reward system in animals
In rodents, long-term or binge-like sugar intake changed the brain's reward circuits. Sucrose given for 7 or 21 days to male rats raised dopamine signalling in the nucleus accumbens, and a 25% glucose solution over 31 days increased D1 and mu-opioid receptor expression in female rats.
Behaviour in animal studies
Rodent studies found that a 25% sucrose solution given for 12 weeks to adolescent mice led to more hyperlocomotion in response to novelty and worse episodic and spatial memory in adulthood. Long-term 8 to 25% sucrose consumption was linked to anxiety-like or depressive-like symptoms, but not at 5% sucrose.
Maternal sugar and offspring
In animal studies, a high-sugar diet during pregnancy and lactation changed sensitivity to drugs of abuse in the offspring. Maternal sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup increased alcohol intake in female offspring and caused hyperactivity in response to amphetamine in male offspring.
What the authors conclude
“Based on the data, it is strongly recommended limitation in sugar consumption in an individual's everyday diet, especially for children and pregnant women.”
Also in their conclusions
- They strongly recommend limiting sugar consumption in everyday diets, especially for children and pregnant women.
- They say future epidemiological analyses and clinical research are needed to better explain the effect of sugar intake on the development of substance use disorder.
- They note that current clinical nonrandomized data require better exploration and research.
How it was done
The authors wanted to pull together what is known about how high-sugar diets and added sugar affect the brain and behaviour, and whether they raise the risk of substance use disorder.
Two authors independently searched PubMed, Scopus and MDPI journals for reviews, experimental studies and epidemiological data published since the 1990s. They included papers on high-sugar diets, glucose, fructose and added sugar, and left out pay-walled articles, abstracts, conference papers, editorials, letters and short notes.
What it can’t tell you
- Most of the evidence on brain changes and drug sensitivity comes from animal studies, which cannot show what happens in people.
- There are no clinical trials linking sugar eaten during pregnancy or after birth to substance use disorder in people.
- The human data are observational, so they can show a link between sugar and conditions like depression, not cause and effect.
Who paid
- Funding
- Funded by Department of Drug Addiction Pharmacology, Maj Institute of Pharmacology Polish Academy of Sciences (from the PubMed record).
- Conflicts
- The authors declare no conflict of interest.
- Authors work at
- Maj Institute of Pharmacology Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
The paper
- Title
- A High-Sugar Diet Consumption, Metabolism and Health Impacts with a Focus on the Development of Substance Use Disorder: A Narrative Review
- Type
- ReviewThe authors read earlier studies and describe what they found. It isn’t a new study.
- Evidence
- Studies in people · animals · lab
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Witek K, Wydra K, Filip M (2022). A High-Sugar Diet Consumption, Metabolism and Health Impacts with a Focus on the Development of Substance Use Disorder: A Narrative Review. Nutrients. doi:10.3390/nu14142940Free full textPubMed 35889898DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error