Your Brain on Sugar Part 1

Is your brain addicted?

Would you consider yourself addicted to sugar?  You need something sweet after a meal?  You try not eating sugar but you get a headache?  You can’t wait until you get that next treat?

Have you looked at the labels of your food lately?

Sugar is so hidden that often when I ask clients if they eat a lot of sugar they tell me no.  They believe this is the case until they go home and start reading the labels of their food.  To their surprise, sugar is in everything!

The first question they ask is “How did I not know this?”  Unfortunately, foo companies are not going to tell you the amount of sugar in their foods unless it is very little.  They know exactly what sugar does to the brain and that is why they want it in there.

Your brain on Sugar

Research is finding that the brain responds similar to sugar almost exactly the way it responds to heroin and alcohol. This is because of the dopamine  receptors in the brain.  When you eat sugar your body gets a rush of dopamine (a feel good hormone).  This is the rush you feel after you eat something sweet.  This is the same rush people get when they do drugs.

That RUSH is why your brain craves it. It feel so good after you eat it.

The problem is that your brain starts to become desensitized.  A little bit of sugar begins to do hardly anything for you. Your brain needs more of it to get the same Rush as before.

Research is also finding that gram for gram, sugar has the same affect as most street drugs! 

Depression

In a report in the 2017 Journal of Scientific Report, they looked at wether depressed people crave sugar or if sugar makes people feel depressed.  They found that depressed people don’t necessarily reach for sugar.

It is the sugar that makes people feel depressed. 

The affects of the sugar in the brain can not be denied.

This is good to know!

What do you need to do to kick sugar?

This is something I love to help with! I have been there!

What can I do to help?

🙂
Dana