A doctor breaks down the rush, the crash, and why getting “sugar-high” is more complicated than it sounds.
In the Simpsons episode ‘Boy-Scoutz ‘n the Hood,’ Bart and Milhouse spend $20 on the Squishee—a milkshake that Apu loads up with syrup. From then on, as sugar wreaks havoc on their perception, they embark on a trip that resembles a sensory, chemical, and delirious high. But can sugar actually make you high? What does that feel like? How many innocent ice cream cones from McDonald’s, Burger King, Dairy Queen, or Sonic Drive-In would someone need to get “high” on sugar?
Santiago Gullino is a gastroenterologist specializing in endocannabinology and director of Conectar Med, a multidisciplinary project offering therapeutic support, scientific material production, and cannabis-related consulting. For him, the rush that Bart and Milhouse experience lies exclusively in the efficiency of the gut-brain axis.
“Ultra-processed ice cream isn’t just a treat; it’s a dopamine delivery technology designed to hack our biology. Upon first contact with the tongue and, subsequently, with the receptors in the gut, sugar triggers immediate signals to the nucleus accumbens. This dopamine release can rise up to 200% above baseline levels,” the expert explains.
Put simply, the brain has no filters for a glucose bomb as refined as a fast-food ice cream cone. It simply identifies it as a survival victory and rewards us with euphoria that, at a neurochemical level, is similar to the early-stage reward response seen with addictive substances. Now we can understand Bart and Milhouse. Theirs was a neurochemical shock.
In that sense, fast-food ice creams have a specific combination of fat and refined sugar that can enhance addiction more than sugar alone. “Ice cream combines refined sugar with saturated fats, creating what we in the industry call the ‘Bliss Point.’ This combination doesn’t exist in nature and triggers a synergistic response: while sugar hijacks the dopaminergic pathway, fat activates delayed satiety signals,” explains Gullino.
That’s why doctors warn that chronically consuming ultra-processed foods ends up desensitizing dopamine receptors. Simply put: the body ends up needing increasingly larger doses of sugar to feel “something,” a tolerance mechanism identical to that of any addiction, but hidden beneath the rainbow-syrup shine.
And then? In the same episode of The Simpsons, after going through a haze of video games, musicals, skateboarding, and comedowns, we see Bart confused, hungover, and suffering the physical toll. “After that night of excess, Bart wakes up disoriented and with a hangover that rivals one from alcohol or amphetamines. In gastroenterology, this has a name: reactive hypoglycemia, but in the context of addiction, it’s the beginning of a cycle of dependence,” the specialist points out.
When a massive dose of sugar is ingested—like that super-sweetened milkshake—the pancreas panics and releases an industrial amount of insulin to remove that glucose from the bloodstream. The result is a precipitous drop in energy levels. At that moment, the brain goes into emergency mode. The resulting irritability isn’t just a passing bad mood; it’s a response from the sympathetic nervous system. Deprived of its “fast fuel,” the body releases cortisol and adrenaline, putting us in a “fight or flight” state. What looks like a crash is, indeed, a crash.
And it’s at this precise point that the parallel between excess sugar and drugs becomes, shall we say, unsettling. That desire has a name: craving, a desperate longing for another dose. Sound familiar? It’s similar to what someone using short-acting drugs feels when the levels of the substance drop. “It’s biologically similar to the urge the body feels for another ice cream cone or another sugary drink to get out of the crash,” adds Gullino. Sugar generates a short-cycle withdrawal.
“As doctors, we observe that this constant fluctuation not only erodes the patient’s willpower but also generates neuroinflammation that perpetuates the cycle of addiction, making the supermarket the most accessible and socially accepted ‘dealer’ in the world,” the expert elaborates.
But there’s something else that can’t be ignored: sugar produces dopamine, and this is where the main problem lies in understanding why it’s so difficult to give up ultra-processed foods. “For our hunter-gatherer brains, sugar was a signal of ‘safe’ and non-toxic energy (sweet fruits are not usually poisonous). That’s why we developed a reward system that compels us to seek it out whenever it’s available,” says Gullino.
Let’s go with a more or less technical explanation: sugar produces dopamine through both immediate (cephalic) and post-ingestion (intestinal) signals. The first is explained by the electrical surge of dopamine that tells the brain, “Hey, you found some caloric gold, give me more!” and the second releases another wave of dopamine once it reaches the intestines. Double win!
So, if someone wanted to increase their dopamine dose and get as high as Bart and Milhouse, what should they do? Well, there’s no universal number for that, but rather an individual equation. Just like with weed, like with everything else in life. The gastroenterologist clarifies a few things: “Sugar intoxication has nothing to do with psychedelia. There’s no expansion of consciousness or genuine sensory alteration.” So what then? “What happens is extreme excitability and behavioral dysregulation. It’s an explosion of chaotic energy, verbosity, and loss of impulse control, inevitably followed by a crash.”
For those curious about the “trip,” it’s worth noting that dopamine isn’t the molecule of pleasure, but rather the molecule of anticipation and seeking. Its “rewards” are evolutionary tools that, when activated by substances like refined sugar, turn against us.
In Bart’s case, the first sip of that super milkshake leaves him dazzled and focuses his attention: what matters is the now. It’s a reward granted by novelty. Then comes the more dangerous reward, since dopamine generates the impulse to want more. It doesn’t make you enjoy the ice cream cone; it makes you need the next bite. And finally, dopamine marks the moment on your memory map and tells you: “When you feel bad, remember that sugar gave you energy.” The reward, then, stands as a neural shortcut, and the brain ends up rewarding repetition.
That’s why Bart and Milhouse’s “high” doesn’t present itself as a mental expansion, but as a collapse from excess. “When so much glucose enters the body all at once, the brain receives a massive electrical shock. The ‘high’ here is an overexcitement of the reward system. The neurons fire dopamine so quickly that the control circuits (the prefrontal cortex) disconnect. The result is that psychomotor agitation and disinhibition: the body is ‘drunk’ on its own fuel.”
Thus, our modern diet—based on ultra-processed foods and glucose spikes—has trapped us in a chemical snare that entangles us and confuses the dopamine rush with happiness. “The Squishee or the super milkshake are symbols of a monotonous diet that distances us from our biological essence. By flooding our bodies with a single signal (refined sugar), we silence the complex orchestra of our endocannabinoid system and atrophy our gut microbiota. We become biologically anxious beings, trapped in a short-cycle withdrawal that no amount of sugar can ever satisfy.”
And, pay attention to what the doctor says, the secret to biological happiness “is not in the intensity of the stimulus, but in nutritional diversity.” The call is to “recover the variety of what we ingest”: stop hacking the brain and start nourishing it. Finally, the real danger of sugar isn’t just the metabolic crash or the desensitization of dopamine, but that, thanks to this chemical frenzy and motor impairment, you end up like Bart Simpson and join the Boy Scouts.
