IT’S BITTER SWEET: THE TRUTH BEHIND SUGAR ADDICTION
It’s Bitter Sweet: The Truth Behind Sugar Addiction
Almost every day in our diets we include sugary foods. Sugar is a source of sweetness that everyone will always want to get. Under normal circumstances, we take sugar in the form of food additive though some people will sometimes take it directly due to its natural sweetness. It is almost a common knowledge that sugar has been attributed to obesity and diabetes when taken in excess. This has neither made people all over the globe to reduce the intake of sugar.
Why bitter sweet?
Obviously sugar is very sweet. Its sweetness remains unquestionable, but the facts about the effects that the sugar has in our bodies makes it bitter. How? One of the negative facts about sugar is that it has been in the frontline contributor of obesity and diabetes. Due to its natural sweetness makes it a very rewarding food substance and hence leading many people to overeating and consequently obese.
Apart from these bitter facts about sugar, research has now shown that sugar is a “new tobacco”, worse than many addictive drugs we know and a secrete killer! You will not believe it, According to the research done by Dr. Mark Hyman et al, shows that sugar is over eight times more addictive than cocaine.
What makes sugar a very common source of addiction?
Unlike many other addictive drugs, which are illegal in many countries, sugar is a legal food substance all over the world. This makes sugar readily available and it is also cheap to acquire. The nature of its sweetness cannot also be underestimated as this is what actually makes a sugar a highly rewarding substance in the human brain.
How does sugar addiction occur?
Among the known foodstuffs which have capability to stimulate the pleasure centers in the brain, sugar is one of them. This center of pleasure which sugar stimulates is known as dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter that controls the brain’s pleasure and reward centers. Research has shown that sugar acts on human brain in the same way as cocaine.
When sugar is taken, just like any other dopamine producing substance it enters the brain system and activates the neurotransmitters responsible for pleasure. High amounts of dopamine are released to the system and hence the rewarding effects occur. This rewarding occurs in a form of pleasure that the person taking the sugar feels. With time, the number of dopamines which are released when the sugar is taken reduces and this results to the condition known as resistance. This eventually means in order to produce the pleasurable feeling, you have to consume more that you used to consume before. This launches a viscous cycle of increased consumption of sugar leading to further desensitization and end up with an insatiable appetite for sugar.
Another qualifier factor of sugar as a silent killer substance is that apart from the increase in consumption of sugar, the dopamine receptor decrease and there is a marked decrease also in their activity. This makes the part of human brain which is responsible for execution of functions such as planning, organizing and rational decision making paralyzed.
What danger does this pose? This is a double cutting sword for the sugar addict. Apart from the fact that the addict will be required to consume more and more sugar to achieve the required pleasure effect, the addiction also makes it more difficult for the addict’s brain to plan ahead and makes wise decisions on foods to take. This makes the addict to keep on dangerously eating sugary foods. This poses more danger to the addict.
What does sugar have to do with obesity?
The understanding of the relationship between sugar and obesity may look hidden unlike its direct relationship with diabetes. The main reason behind obesity is overeating. So, does it mean sugar addicts eat more than normal people? Let’s find out by asking another related question, “How do we know that we have eaten enough food and hence stop eating?”
The reason why we will always know when we have had enough of food is that our brains have a hormone known as Leptin. This hormone sends a signal when one has had enough of a food and hence the person stops eating. This hormone is naturally produces in the fat cells and it functions well under normal healthy dieting. However, this hormone is easily interrupted by things such as ingesting too much artificial sweeteners, high levels of insulin and not forgetting excess sugar. When a sugar addict consumes excess sugar, this disrupts the hormone and hence it fails to function.
When Leptin hormones fail, the hunger homes begin to run rampantly and unopposed. This makes the addict feel hungry and hence want to eat every now and then. Every time such a person eats, there will be obviously overeating since there are no regulatory signals in the brain and this is why sugar addiction is highly associated with obesity.
Can sugar addiction be treated?
Sugar addiction is curable. The main problem is that sugar has high craving levels and when you will be recovering from sugar addiction you will need to be very much determined lest you will have relapse. If you have a sugar addiction, all you need to do is to visit a specialist, a doctor of psychologist and a recovery method that best suits you will be devised based on mediation or therapy.
IT’S BITTER SWEET: THE TRUTH BEHIND SUGAR ADDICTION
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