From my own experience, I definitely believe that sugar is addicting.  I suspect it's the sugars containing fructose, such as table sugar (sucrose) and high fructose corn syrup that are most addicting.  And these are the most common sweeteners.  It's interesting that the sugar in milk, lactose, does not contain fructose and though I drink raw milk, I don't feel addicted to it as I once was with other sweets.  I enjoy it, but I don't crave it.  My guess is that fructose evolved in plants in the form of fruit to attract animals to disperse their seeds and having addicting qualities increases the attraction.  That said, I don't really feel addicted to eating small amounts of fruit, but I suspect that eating a lot of fruit every day could become addicting.

Also, from my experience, after breaking my sugar addiction, I find that most desserts are too sweet tasting and I no longer crave them.  My taste sensitivity to sweets was definitely lowered when I was addicted.  Now that I'm no longer addicted, I can taste sweetness at much lower thresholds and other flavors, like sour and tart are more appealing.  But I suspect it was a desensitizing effect from eating sugar too frequently that drove my increase in weight and not the other way around.  So, I wouldn't say that obesity numbs the sweet taste sensation, but rather frequent consumption of fructose, sucrose, and/or HFCS numbs the sweet taste sensation.  From what I have been reading lately, I suspect that over-consumption of fructose leads to obesity, and the over-consumption is driven by it's addicting qualities.

For many years now, Dr Mercola has been recommending that we minimize sugar in our diet to improve our health, and he's quite right : )

I don't know who I'm angrier at: the people who proposed this study or the agency that funded it. "There is apparently a critical link between taste and body weight"? Wow, stop  the presses!

This is just another example of Bubbe psychology: research results your grandmother could have told you without a federal grant. We all know people who eat beyond the Fill line, simply because something tastes so good. My father, may he rest in peace, was one.

The best exercise for weight loss? Using your arms and legs to push your chair away from the table.