You come home after a long day of work, you open up the cupboard doors and scan for the ingredients you know will quiet the craving that’s been building up all afternoon.
Your eyes drift across the shelf. You already know what you want. Something small, something sweet. At the far-right corner of the shelf, you spot them. The final three biscuits wrapped up in their crinkled plastic sleeve. Your hand reaches for them without hesitation. It is a craving that feels almost automatic. A quiet instinct to seek comfort or reward.
You take one, then another. But you crave more. Before you realise, you’re back at that spot next to the cupboard ready for another, reaching for the last one.
But what is driving this desire? What is fuelling our connection to sugar? Jane Ogden, a Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Surrey explains, “people don’t open the pack from the cupboard and eat just the sugar, they eat the objects that are made with sugar. It’s not just the substance we want; it’s the object which has meanings to do with our childhood, our culture and our relationship with the food itself, often used as a good way of regulating your emotions.”
And scientists and experts alike are increasingly recognising this connection as an emerging problem, with the increase in ultra processed food causing calls for concern. But there is debate around the term ‘food addiction’ itself, as clinical health psychologist, Dr Jen Unwin explains:
“Food addiction sounds a bit broad, we don’t say people with an alcohol addiction have a fluid addiction, but people think food seems a bit too general, and it raised criticism as to how can food be addictive when we have to eat it.
“We say whilst that is true, it also makes it so hard for people to quit, when we are exposed to it every day and we have to eat food to live.
“The problem we face is, we don’t have an off switch in the world we live in today, our natural drive for food is too high and often these products fuelled with sugar are cheap and ubiquitous, and sometimes hard to spot. It only adds to this relationship between us and sugar.”
Sugar as an addiction
For years, the issue has been debated, examining patterns of sugar consumption that mirror other forms of addiction.
Professor Ogden explains, “the medical model for addiction is that it is all or nothing, it involves craving and a loss of control. But in reality, most behaviours sit somewhere along a spectrum.
“Traditionally, we were looking at addictive substances such as alcohol and cigarettes, but we moved into addictive behaviours, and types of food is a relatively new one we are finding.”
But despite this focus on sugar addiction being in its early stages, there is evidence to suggest the comparison to alcohol and drugs is clear.
Dr Unwin agrees with this approach, “in society, there is about 10-14 per cent of people with an addiction of some extent, and it is very similar to the percentage we see here.
“I always say to people who don’t think sugar is addictive, well try and give it up for two weeks and come back and tell me. We have it every day, whether it be in the background or more prominently, you’ll see how people do get withdrawal symptoms, as we see in other forms of addiction.
“Compare it to smoking, people didn’t realise it was bad for you early on, but as research began coming out, the push back came. I think it’s going to be a similar process with sugar.”
So how will we know? How can we tell if our cravings tip into the medical models of addiction? “If you can have a biscuit, put the pack away and come back in two days and have another, well you probably don’t have a problem,” says Dr Unwin. “But if you’re opening up a pack of biscuits and the next time you look, they are all gone, and you’re craving them and you know you should stop but can’t, well that’s looking more like an addiction.
As the research continues to evolve, experts say the question is no longer whether sugar can be addictive, but how deeply its effects are embedded in our daily lives.
Sugar is woven into the fabric of what we eat, making it harder to identify, regulate, and resist. But where does this drive for sugar begin?
The psychological preference for sugar
It can be difficult to understand why our brain wants certain things, yet studies offer clues as to the reasons behind our psychological cravings.
Experts challenge the common misconception that addiction is purely a chemical relationship between a substance and our mind. Instead, the psychological factors that come into play are just as prevalent. “What we also know is, the more sugar you have the more you like it, because it’s a learning process, and we learn to like things that are familiar. Cereal is full of sugar, bread is full of sugar, and quickly people are learning that is what bread tastes like, so when it’s taken out it doesn’t feel right because it’s the absence of something that we miss,” explains Ogden.
In other words, sugar isn’t just a treat, it can act as a comfort blanket, a covert reward system deeply wired into our brains, and a shortcut to memory, mood and behaviour.
But with that comes consequences, and it is this point, when the addiction takes over, that experts are concerned about the rising impact sugar addiction can have on our health.
The health consequences
According to the NHS, the average Brit consumes 13 to 14 teaspoons of sugar each day, almost double the recommended maximum of seven. Whilst advice states ‘added’ sugars should make up no more than 5% of our daily calorie intake. Yet findings from the British Nutrition Foundation reveal a far less restrained reality, surpassing this figure by more than double.
And as this connection between sugar and dependency increases, the detrimental effect on our health rises, with direct links between sugar and the levels of type 2 diabetes seen throughout the UK.
Dr Unwin says, “We are never going to solve the crisis of type 2 diabetes until we take seriously that a large proportion of people have an addiction, there is a clear relationship between sugar, and the likelihood people suffer from type two diabetes and even depression.
“Studies shows that people with an addiction, such as that to sugar, are 7.6 times more likely to have it, and 3 times more likely to have a mental health problem,” a frightening statistic as the presence of sugar in our diets rises.
Whilst that late night snack run to the supermarket may not signify a direct transition from craving to addiction, it does provide a telling glimpse into how deeply ingrained our relationship with sugar has become, blurring the lines between what may edge closer to dependency.
As both experts explain, this isn’t just willpower. It’s recognising the psychological forces that come into play.
So, what can we do? Next time you crave that midnight snack, ask yourself, what is driving this desire? Experts suggest the first step is awareness. Noticing the hidden sugars in everyday foods can help you make more informed choices.
Dr Unwin says every time we reach for a snack, we come to a choice point. A ‘fork in the road’ between the automatic and the conscious. Over time, choosing the second path strengthens our self-control, and changes our brains response to sugar, slowly breaking the hold sugar can have in the world we live in today.
