How Does Sugar Affect The Brain ?
Tarannum Sattar
Sugar cravings are new to none. A sweet tooth yearning is common after every hearty meal. Chocolates, cakes, and ice creams are the last things that our mind lets us resist regardless how much our body says no to it.
However, the studies prove that there is a reason we crave for sugar. Sugar works in ways that can easily dominate and diversify the way our brain thinks. Yes, it happens.
According to an animation constructed by Ted Ed’s Nicole Avena, whenever you take a particular amount of sugar, it immediately activates your taste buds. The taste buds the sends signal to the cerebral cortex receptors, which consequently questions the brain, “Do I want more?”
The brain obviously answers in positive. The signal sent to the receptor unveils a complicated system of chemical and electrical pathways that opens up the brain’s reward system.
Sugar activates your brain’s reward system the same way drugs, social and sexual interactions do. But it is a known fact to everyone that overstimulation of consumption may lead to many hazards like addiction, loss of control and tolerance.
Back to the sugar you just consumed, it goes to your guts and sends a message to your brain notifying that you need to produce insulin to control your intake. As we eat healthy food, it triggers dopamine into our brain cells, but after a certain period, our brain’s reward currency system gets tired of the same taste and wants something new and different.
Humnas have evolved to produce and try out new food over eras for two primary reasons being:
– By experimenting, we know what food is bad for health.
– By trying out the diversity, we consume all kinds of nutrients that our body needs.
To say the least, with the consumption of sugar, less or excessive, the level of dopamine does not come down. It stays very high. Hence, the craving grows and sugar soothes it like a drug.