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Study Up For 'Think:' Are Candy-Loving Kids Budding Drug Addicts?

NPR
Samira Kawash learned the definition of "confectioner" can also be "a compounder of medicines, poisons." She shares the most alarmist (alarming?) bits about candy today on 'Think' at noon.

Most parents know the sugar-spike-and-crash-cycle well enough to keep candy on the top shelf. But are the kids who fill their buckets most enthusiastically for Halloween the same ones who'll end up addicted to crack or heroin as adults? Is the frenzy over sugar consumption warranted or overblown? Samira Kawash wanted to know how - and why - our attitudes have changed about candy.

Read an excerpt from her book Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasurevia Slate before Kawash joins Think host Krys Boyd at noon. Turns out there are studies that tie sugar to addictive behavior or milder compulsion, and others that show  junk food is harmful in a more indirect way by causing people to overeat. The term "food addiction" is muddy though, and many hope to narrow the definition.

Listen to Think at noon and 9 p.m. or stream if you like. 

Lyndsay Knecht is assistant producer for Think.