The Economy of Craving Part 2—Why Sugar is the Gateway to All Other Addictions
The Moment It Begins
My daughter was sitting in the stroller, small enough that the world was still new to her. We were outside a supermarket, and I handed her a bottle of orange juice. Nothing special. Just juice. She had never had anything like it before. Until that moment, everything she drank had been simple—water, milk. Natural.
I watched her take the first sip.
Something changed in her eyes. It wasn’t just enjoyment. It was something deeper. A kind of fixation. A recognition. Like a switch had flipped. She wanted more. She had to have more. I had never seen that look in her before. That was the moment I understood. I understood that I made a huge mistake.
This is where it starts.
People talk about addiction as if it begins in adulthood, as if it starts with bad decisions, with peer pressure, with moral weakness. But addiction begins long before any of that. It begins before we even understand what addiction is. It begins with sugar.
The Brain Learns to Crave
Sugar does something to the brain that no other natural food does. It hijacks the reward system. When it enters the bloodstream, it triggers a rush of dopamine—a hit of pleasure, of excitement, of instant gratification. The brain, designed to seek out energy for survival, takes note. It remembers.
Most natural foods don’t do this. When you eat meat, when you eat vegetables, when you drink water, your body absorbs what it needs and moves on. But sugar? Sugar commands attention. The brain locks onto it, associating it with immediate reward.
This is how addiction starts. Not with alcohol. Not with cigarettes. Not with drugs. But with sugar. It is the first lesson the brain learns:
There is a shortcut to pleasure. And once you know it, you will keep looking for it.
The Body Enters the Loop
It’s not just the brain. Sugar trains the body to expect rapid highs and lows. It spikes blood sugar, creating a surge of energy. Then comes the crash—fatigue, irritability, the sudden need for another hit. The body panics. It signals hunger, even when fuel isn’t needed. And so the cycle repeats.
This is not just a sugar problem. This is the blueprint for addiction itself.
Once the body learns to chase the sugar high, the pattern is set. When stress comes, the mind seeks a fix. When boredom sets in, the body craves stimulation. If sugar isn’t available, something else will do—nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, drugs, even compulsive behaviors like shopping, gambling, or social media. Anything that can provide the spike, the release, the relief.
The First Addiction Opens the Door to the Rest
Think about when people smoke cigarettes. It’s not just about nicotine—it’s about the ritual, the timing, the association with stress relief. The same is true for alcohol. Most people don’t drink because they are physically addicted—they drink because it fills a role in their emotional cycle.
But what created that cycle in the first place?
If you trace it back, the answer is clear. Sugar is the foundation. It is the first thing that teaches the body to seek artificial stimulation, the first thing that wires the brain for dependency. It is the first substance that normalizes addiction before we even understand what addiction is.
And once sugar has done its job, other substances don’t have to work as hard. The mind is already trained. The body already knows the game.
Cut Sugar, Break the Pattern
If sugar is the gateway, then removing it is the reset button. When you cut sugar, you don’t just change your diet—you disrupt the entire addiction cycle.
The body stops expecting constant dopamine spikes.
The brain stops seeking artificial pleasure.
Cravings weaken—not just for sugar, but for everything that mimics its effects.
This is why people who quit sugar often find themselves drinking less, smoking less, thinking more clearly. The system that kept them reaching for the next hit begins to break down. The same industries that profit from cravings—junk food, alcohol, fast entertainment, consumer culture—suddenly have less control.
The Consumer Machine Needs You Addicted
The food industry doesn’t just sell sugar—it depends on it. If people stopped craving, stopped needing a fix, the entire system would struggle to keep them engaged.
The real economy is not about money. It’s about addiction. About keeping people slightly off-balance, slightly unsatisfied, always needing something. Always consuming.
But we know Socrates saw through it all, even in his time. He walked through the Athenian marketplace, surrounded by merchants selling their goods, and said:
"How many things I have no need of!"
The modern world does not want you to say that. It wants you to need. It wants you to crave, to buy, to indulge. To believe that you are missing something and that the solution is always just one purchase, one drink, one bite away.
But the truth is simpler.
Cut the first addiction, and the rest of the chains begin to loosen.