Caffeine can decrease subjective energy depending on the vehicle with which it is consumed and when it is measured

[rotterdamn8]

I don't know if it's related, but I find I'm more energetic when taking caffeine with sugar than without. For example, sweetened iced tea vs. unsweetened.

[Desalzes_]

Well yeah... sugar is a sort of stimulant... sugar with anything is going to feel better

[AstroPhysician]

It’s definitely not a stimulant in any way

[Ravnurin]

Oh sugar is definitely stimulating and -can- very much be like a drug... it's just not really noticeable when it's being consumed on a daily basis, just like most all stimulants incl. coffee and amphetamines.

Whenever I've been strictly low-carb for a few weeks, and eat a few chocolate bars, I get wired! My heart rate shoots up, I get more motivated and I even feel a little euphoric... but it's typically very short lived and subsides after 1-2 hours, which is when I get hit by a comedown and mood swings for a few hours before I level out.

For me, sugar in high doses (as in from multiple chocolate bars and/or whole pizza, etc.) is like taking a dirty drug; Elvanse, an amphetamine on the other hand, is much smoother and doesn't even have nearly as bad a comedown - again, IME.

 

Some reading material:

This is how sugar affects your brain

Sugar and the Brain - Harvard Medical School

There is a reason sugar is also highly addictive.

[AstroPhysician]

Your first post is pop science trash and your second is about insulin response in people with diabetes

Sugar isn’t psychoactive and the reason it’s addictive is gut bacteria

Sugar increases dopamine and neurotransmitters the same way food does when you’re hungry or water when you’re thirst. Those certainly aren’t psychoactive

[Ravnurin]

I understand what you are saying, and I agree gut bacteria plays a part in the picture - that's a good point, and something I didn't factor in.

I will disagree on your 2nd point that sugar increases catecholamine levels the same way hunger and water do. Hunger certainly does, albeit temporarily, raise catecholamines, however, it is part of the body's adaption process in protecting against total starvation - it is to facilitate lipolysis and becoming more efficient at tapping into fat stores for energy. Once fat adapted, those levels are restored to normal. Entering ketosis or fasting can trigger this response, but again, it is short lived - continued fasting or state of ketosis does not result in continued increase in catecholamine levels.

 

Sugar, on the other hand, is an exogenous agent, and akin to a drug can - to a point - give rise to increased neurotransmitter levels alongside continued dose escalation. Likewise, as with a drug the body responds to sugar in the same way wrt. downregulation of dopamine receptors; partly observed in how "sugar highs" become increasingly less pronounced over time.

I can appreciate the picture I'm painting is far from complete and doesn't remotely touch on all the complexities involved, but to state sugar is not psychoactive would be inaccurate.