The Cupcake Burglar

When your body is covered with cake and frosting, you tend to stand out from the crowd.

That was the case recently when police in Alpen, Michigan, began looking for a home intruder who had knocked over a tray of frosted cupcakes as she dashed through the house. Sugar coated, she wasn’t hard to spot.

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The intruder was intoxicated with alcohol, not sugar — but the story illustrates a keen point. There may be more to our sweet tooth than just simple enjoyment. Each American consumes some 156 pounds of sugar each year, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Related: That Dangerous Cookie Jar

Can people really be addicted to sugar? Consider that in a recent study on food addiction completed at the University of Michigan, researchers found a strong similarity between behaviors that define drug addiction and those related to compulsive eating or binging on certain foods. Those foods generally had a high GL (glycemic load). Refined sugar is a common ingredient in high GL foods.

Erica Schulte, lead author of the study, told LifeZette that high GL foods seem to be strongly associated with people who reported food addiction symptoms. She describes those symptoms as follows:

They “include a loss of control over consumption, continued use despite negative consequences and a need to consume increased quantities of the food over time in order to achieve the desired effects.”

The idea of food addictions, and sugar addiction in particular, is controversial among eating disorder professionals, according to board certified psychiatrist and addiction specialist Dr. Kim Dennis, medical director of Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center outside Chicago.

“Not all substances are addictive,” said Dennis. “People don’t get addicted to broccoli or water or milk. The characteristics that indicate a substance is addictive is its rapid rate of absorption into the body and how fast it passes through the blood-brain barrier to your reward center.”

Dennis said in brain-imaging studies, the same physiological patterns seen in drug addiction are also present with sugar addiction.

Related: Healthy Snacks for Your Cravings

“Everybody is different,” said Susan Brown, an integrative nutrition health coach and author of “Simply Sugar Free.” “Some people want to lick the frosting off a cupcake, while others only want to eat the cake.”

Brown is one of those who would only be interested in the frosting. She also has learned that moderation does not work for her addiction. Eating foods with sugar, honey, agave or maple syrup (all made of about 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose) will create cravings for more.

“I can eat fresh fruit,” Brown said, “because it has fiber and water, and the fructose isn’t as concentrated.”

Brown doesn’t recommend going cold turkey to quit a sugar addiction.

“You need to add before you take away,” she says in her book. Adding protein and/or fiber to your sugar intake will slow down the absorption by the body.

Wendy Larson, a certified natural health professional from central Minnesota, said her extreme reactions to sugar as a child caused her mother to withhold it at all costs.

“I craved sugar and even snuck it without my parents knowing to get a ‘fix,'” Larson told LifeZette.

When she went to school for her certification in natural health, she came to understand the root causes of sugar addictions.

“The enzyme amylase helps break down carbs and sugars in the body and helps our body use the energy properly,” Larson said. “When our overworked livers don’t produce enough of this enzyme, carbs and sugars pass into our digestive tract and feed another culprit in sugar addiction, candida yeast.”

Related: Healthy Hipster Juice?

Larson helped her own family overcome sugar addictions by balancing blood sugars.

“When we keep blood sugar stable in our body, we reduce stress,” said Larson. “No more afternoon crashes, or difficulties waking up in the morning. No more difficulties sleeping at night or hormonal issues.”

She said balancing blood sugar can be accomplished in many ways. Diet is the most critical, but for some, supplements may be needed to help support the process.

Could you be addicted to sugar? Could all the added sugar in our processed foods be feeding that addiction? It may be time to see sugar as more than a cause of tooth decay and weight gain. For some, it may be a true addiction, endangering our health and the health of our children.