If in case you have ever tried to “stop” sugar, you’re probably acquainted with the logic behind it: Should you cease consuming candy issues, you’ll cease craving them. This can be a cornerstone of many eating regimen tendencies and wellness hacks: The concept is that sugar is addictive, and by going chilly turkey, you possibly can primarily biohack your style buds, reset your palate, and eradicate your candy tooth for good.
As a registered dietitian, I hear this principle continually. Purchasers typically inform me they’re terrified that one cookie will spiral right into a sugar bender. Some individuals I’ve labored with have even been advised that sugar is as addictive as cocaine—a declare rooted in research carried out on rats, which can not totally translate to human habits.
However a captivating new research printed not too long ago challenges this narrative totally. It means that our choice for sweetness is much extra steady—and fewer hackable—than we thought.
What the science truly says about chopping sugar
The research, printed within the American Journal of Medical Diet in 2025 and referred to as “The Candy Tooth Trial,” was a strong randomized managed trial (the gold commonplace of analysis) carried out over six months. Researchers divided 180 adults into three teams, assigning every a particular degree of candy style publicity: low, common, and excessive.
The individuals adopted these diets for half a yr, and the researchers measured every thing from their “candy style liking” (how a lot they most popular candy flavors) to their physique weight and general well being markers over time.
The speculation? That the individuals consuming the low-sugar eating regimen would lose their style for sweets, whereas these within the high-sugar group would begin craving sweeter and sweeter meals.
The fact? Nothing modified.
After six months, the researchers discovered no distinction in “candy style liking” between the teams. The individuals who restricted candy tastes didn’t begin disliking sugar, and the individuals who ate a high-sweetness eating regimen didn’t develop a heightened choice for it. Additional, there have been no vital adjustments in physique composition or well being markers like insulin sensitivity purely primarily based on candy style publicity.
This aligns with a latest assessment printed within the British Journal of Diet, which analyzed a number of research and concluded that publicity to sweetness would not drive a candy tooth. Whereas now we have lengthy been advised that consuming sugar makes you need extra sugar, the empirical information simply would not again that up.
Why it’d really feel like chopping sugar works
This is perhaps complicated, particularly in case you have personally tried chopping out sweets and felt your cravings diminish. I’ve skilled this myself, and I’ve seen shoppers undergo it too. If the science says our choice for sweetness is steady, why does chopping it out typically really feel like a magic repair, not less than briefly?
