Can You Get Addicted to Carbs?

Sugar or bread might incite a craving for more of the same, but no, you can't get hooked on carbs the way you can on alcohol or drugs.

Psychologically, however, there is a powerful drive to eat them, according to Judith Wurtman, PhD, director of the program in women's health at the MIT Clinical Research Center. "The only way your brain can make serotonin—the key chemical that lifts mood—is through your intake of carbohydrates," says Wurtman. Women's brains naturally contain less serotonin than men's, Wurtman says, and when we try to remove carbohydrates from our diets, we can become anxious, depressed, and irritable and have trouble concentrating. "It's not an addiction, because there's no physical withdrawal," she explains, "but when you have those feelings and you've been depriving yourself of carbs, you begin to crave them in order to make yourself feel better."