Sugar-Free Lent: What Cutting Sweets Does to Your Brain

Giving up sugar for Lent can reveal how sugar acts on the brain’s reward system—driving dopamine signaling in the mesolimbic pathway, altering D1/D2 receptor balance and dopamine transport—similar to drugs of abuse; rodent studies show bingeing, withdrawal, and impulsivity; in humans, about 40 days off sugar may reset some neural sensitivity and reduce cravings, though effects vary by person.