News Today

November 18, 2003

Link Between Sweet Tooth and Alcoholism

The latest research on alcoholism shows that people who have a sweet tooth are more than twice as likely to be genetically predisposed to develop an alcohol addiction, WebMD reported Nov. 14.

For the study, researchers at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine studied 163 men and women who had no personal history of alcoholism or other drug use. Half of the participants had a family history of alcoholism, while the other half did not.

The researchers wanted to see if a preference for sweet substances paves the way for alcoholism, or if a sweet tooth is simply caused by years of excessive drinking.

Participants in the study consumed three drinks of alcohol per week. They also had a choice between several different sugar solutions.

The researchers found that study participants with a family history of alcoholism were 2.5 times more likely to have a sweet tooth compared to the other group. Furthermore, those with a family history of alcoholism disliked the less-sweet solutions, while the other group had a neutral response.

"Pleasurable reactions to both alcohol and sweet substances are regulated by the same mechanism, namely, the brain's opioid system," said lead researcher Alexey B. Kampov-Polevoy, assistant professor of psychiatry at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. "Activation of this system results in increased consumption of both alcohol and sweets, while blockade of this system causes the opposite effect."

The study was published in the November 2003 issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.