Can you be addicted to sugar?
Inside Health
BBC
4.4 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 22 April 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What's the science behind a sweet tooth? James Gallagher explores whether sugar really can be addicted and what happens in our bodies when we want it and when we eat it.
He's joined by Professor Susanne Dickson, who specialises in the neurobiology of appetite at the University of Gothenburg, and Professor James Brown from the School of Biosciences at Aston University.
With Easter coming up, James meets dental hygienist and researcher Dr Claire McCarthy from King's College London in the BBC loos to get some top tips on keeping our teeth clean and gets a few pointers on where he could do with brushing up on his technique.
Presenter: James Gallagher Producers: Tom Bonnett and Hannah Robins Assistant Producer: Anna Charalambou
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, |
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| 0:27.4 | listen only on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Welcome to the Inside Health |
| 0:35.3 | podcast with me, James Gallagher. Episodes are released weekly wherever you get your podcasts. |
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| 0:46.2 | First on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:50.0 | Hmm. |
| 0:51.1 | Hello there. |
| 0:51.9 | I'm just enjoying a little chocolatey treat here because it's getting close to Easter and you can't move in the supermarkets for chocolate eggs at the moment. |
| 1:00.4 | So I thought we should think about sugar a bit today. Later, we're going to find out if I know how to brush my teeth properly. |
| 1:07.3 | But first, I want to know if we should be classifying sugar as an addictive substance. |
| 1:12.9 | It's certainly desirable. |
| 1:13.9 | I really want to polish the rest of this off right now. |
| 1:17.1 | But does eating loads of sugar make you crave it even more? |
| 1:22.2 | Well, to discuss, I'm joined by Professor Suzanne Dixon, |
| 1:25.4 | who specialises in Neurobiology of Appetite at the University of Gothenburg, who specialises in neurobiology of appetite at the University |
| 1:28.7 | of Gothenburg, and Professor James Brown from the School of Biosciences at Aston University. |
| 1:34.1 | Suzanne, James, welcome to Inside Health. Hi. Thank you very much. Nice to be here. |
| 1:38.4 | Suzanne, can I start with you if we're going to try to tackle this question of whether we can be |
... |
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