Just saying that there IS a difference between a craving and an addiction. Not all who crave sugar are addicted to it.
This really isn’t a good argument for sugar addiction. Correlation doesn’t equal causation (as in, because diabetics don’t give up sugar, they’re addicted to it). My mom is a T2D and yes, she clings to her carbs and sugar, but that’s because she’s been told by doctors and the food industry that the T2D is a result of her WEIGHT. And her weight is due to…FAT and excess calories. So by that logic, as long as she moderates her carb/sugar/caloric intake, she’s doing what the health profession has told her to do. In fact, she’s never been told to cut out sugar…just the opposite. Have X number of carbs/day, if her blood sugar starts to drop, have a piece of hard candy in her purse to counter act it. So she doesn’t continue to eat sugar because she’s addicted to it. She continues to eat it because she’s been told it’s ok. She’s never been told that she could reverse her T2D by cutting out carbs.
When I first started eating a ketogenic diet, her response was “Well, I don’t think it’s necessary. You know it’s all about the calories you eat and if you cut back on calories, you’ll lose weight.” I didn’t bother to re-educate her…she’s had 50 yrs of being told a certain thing by the medical profession so isn’t going to believe what I tell her.
So maybe the seriousness isn’t so much about a sugar addiction, but a society that’s seriously misinformed and mis-led. Sure, sugar fires those pleasure centers, but for the average person, where’s the incentive to give that up when we’re told it’s OK to eat sugar? When eating sugar is easier and cheaper than eating “real” food?
I’m a relatively intelligent person. I try to stay informed. Double majored in biology and chemistry, went post grad in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. Until I read Dr. Fung’s books, I didn’t even realize just how bad my ONE glass of sweet tea, that I sipped on all day long, was. So was it my sugar addiction or craving that was the problem? Not really…it was my lack of education about it and in some ways, that wasn’t really my fault. Now I know better and I don’t drink sweet tea.