Sugar Can Be Addictive: Animal Studies Show Sugar Dependence

piggy submitted, created time 4 weeks 2 hours (www.sciencedaily.com)

A Princeton University scientist will present new evidence today demonstrating that sugar can be an addictive substance, wielding its power over the brains of lab animals in a manner similar to many drugs of abuse.

Professor Bart Hoebel and his team in the Department of Psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute have been studying signs of sugar addiction in rats for years. Until now, the rats under study have met two of the three elements of addiction. They have demonstrated a behavioral pattern of increased intake and then showed signs of withdrawal

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A sugar helps E. coli go down

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 months 1 week (www.sciencenews.org)

Sugar present in red meat and dairy found to be a risk factor for E. coli infection.

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Nicotine rush hinges on sugar in neurons

bianjie submitted, created time 1 year 5 months (www.eurekalert.org)

A study in Nature Neuroscience online proposes a role for sugar as the hinge that opens a gate in the cell membrane and brings news of nicotine arrival. Finding could lead to improved treatments for substance addiction, depression, epilepsy and other disorders.

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White blood cells are picky about sugar

bianjie submitted, created time 1 year 5 months (www.eurekalert.org)

A unique sugar recognized by white blood cells stimulates robust engulfment and killing of fungi, and might be useful to fight microbial infections that are resistant to current treatments.

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Maple pride is now deep-fried

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.nytimes.com)

Maple syrup growers in the Northeast are starting to use vegetable oil instead of regular fuel oil to prepare the maple sap for syrup. The growers may be doing this because their own industry is "heavily vulnerable to climate change" (NYT): since sugar maples take years to grow, they cannot simply move north if the land becomes unsuitable (though there is some question as to whether any crop could do that).
The biggest downside so far, other than the expense of converting the heaters, is the smell. The sweet aroma of the world's finest maple sugar now mixes with that of cheapo French fries

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FDA: Sugar substitute doesn't cause cancer

amanda submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.msnbc.msn.com)

"A federal review of a 2005 Italian study found no data to support the conclusion the sugar substitute aspartame causes cancer, a health official said Friday."

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