In this the fourth episode of the series, Dr. Lustig looks at sugar’s effects on brain chemistry, specifically, how our reward system (mediated by dopamine in the nucleus accumbens) is changed in response to chronic overconsumption of sugar.
Specifically, Lustig asserts that sugar downregulates the same dopamine system in the nucleus accumbens (reward center of the brain) that drugs like cocaine do. In this sense, an addiction marked by domamine resistence in the pleasure center is an additional driver of obesity in addition to the leptin and insulin resistence he described in previous videos. All, of course, are the result of sugar consumption
