The Reinforcing Value of Added Sugars

Despite the long-term emphasis on reducing intake of and added sugar, this behavioral change has been hard to instill amongst most of the population. Foods with added sugars are highly reinforcing and, as such, reducing their consumption in order to adhere to the dietary guidelines (DGA) may be difficult to maintain. Sugar produces effects similar to some drugs of abuse such as increased extracellular dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens shell resulting in a reinforcing effect. Reducing any reinforcing behavior can be challenging, but in terms of food, it is not known whether the reinforcing value of foods high in added sugar increases when access to these foods is reduced. If so, this would present a mechanistic barrier to meeting the DGA and making dietary changes in general. That the reinforcing value of a behavior (e.g., eating sugar) will be increased when the rate of that behavior is decreased has strong theoretical underpinnings in the "Disequilibrium Approach". This theory predicts that the circumstances of reinforcement are created or limited by changing baseline access. According to the Disequilibrium Approach, a response deficit will result in an increase in reinforcement. Applied to the proposed study, the Disequilibrium Approach would predict that lowering the consumption of dietary added sugar would increase the reinforcing value of foods high in added sugar. The Disequilibrium Approach has accurately predicted an increase in the relative reinforcing value (RRV) of snack foods among children. However, dietary changes would need to occur at the whole diet level for adults and children to meet the DGA for reducing added sugar intake. It is important to know if reducing added sugars at the whole-diet level results in increases in the reinforcing value of foods high in added sugars.