Correlation between cravings for sweets and alcoholism

According to a new U.S. study, there may well be a connection between alcoholism in a child's family and the child's own perception of depression, and the child's craving for candy and other sweets. It shows just published research in the journal Addiction.

The U.S. researchers studied sweet preference in children with genetic predisposition to alcoholism, and came forward to alcohol and sweet taste is able to activate many of the same "reward circuitry" in the brain. The study also included children with depressive symptoms to see if they were launched in the same "reward circuit" with sweets.

The study involved 300 children between 5 and 12 years and their mothers. The children were allowed to taste the five concentrations of sucrose (sugar) in water, while researchers from a questionnaire that rated their children might. Depressive Episodes. It was also noted the concentration of sugar water each child enjoyed most. Mothers participating in the studies was to answer questions about alcoholism in the family.

The most intense sweetness, of the five different varieties of sugar water, consisting of 24% sucrose, corresponding to approx. 14 tsp. sugar in a cup of water. The result showed that out of the 300 children surveyed, there were 37 children who most enjoyed the most intense sweetness. It was found that the 37 infants had both alcoholism in the family and its own symptoms of depression. The intensity of the sweetest mixture was third sweeter than the other children in the study preferred.

Researchers uderstreger however, that a preference for sweet as a child does not necessarily mean an increased risk of alcoholism later in life, writes Tandlægebladet.

Menn Ella JA, Pepino MY, Lehmann-Castor SM, Yourshaw LM. Sweet preferences and analgesia vid childhood: Effects of family history of Alcoholism and depression. Addiction 2010; 105: 666-75.