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I found several online articles discussing sugar withdrawal symptoms that people experience after cutting back on large sugar intake.

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/refined-sugar-withdrawal-symptoms-9911.html

http://www.growyouthful.com/remedy/sugar-addiction-recovery.php

One question that came to mind, was the following: If one experiences a sugar withdrawal, what happens if they apply sugar to the tongue, but do not digest it? Does that trick the brain into stopping the sugar withdrawal, or is it far more complicated than that?

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  • $\begingroup$ It's not clear to me that "sugar withdrawal" is a real medical condition, despite what a newspaper and a site pushing low-carb diets might say. $\endgroup$ – swbarnes2 Sep 30 '14 at 17:05
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Theoretically if you could somehow activate the G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) corresponding to sweet stimuli without absorption of the sugar into the bloodstream than it may be possible to "trick" the brain. (See this review to learn more about how taste signaling works). However, the process of absorbing sugars into the blood stream begins in the mouth (see this question), so testing your idea would be nearly impossible.

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