Why We Crave Sweets?

At times our cravings for things like carbohydrates and sugar can be so intense, that we feel as if we may have a melt down if we don’t satisfy those needs. Sweet and starchy foods are like drugs to our brain.

Nutrient-sparse white flour and cornmeal containing commercial foods, as well as sugar-laden soft drinks, can actually stimulate the release of addictive morphine-like chemicals in our brain called beta-endorphins. Much like morphine, beta-endorphins produce a sense of well being, improve emotions and create feelings of euphoria, until you come crashing down from your high and require more of the same foods to make you feel good again.

From that first time grandma put you on her knee, and fed you her homemade fudge brownies, the pleasure center in your brain lit up and made you feel great. You knew a good thing when you tasted it. Well, so did the chemicals in your brain. You see, that feeling of satisfaction you got from sweet, sugary foods began to form into an addiction. For the majority, today’s children are addicts; in fact the greater part of society is.

Unfortunately, like most addictions, a dependency to sugary foods will rob you of your health. Eating high-sugar, processed foods and carbohydrates, will overload your cells with insulin and in turn elevate levels of the fat storage enzyme LPL. You know the drill: you get fat!

Due to a mechanism in your brain’s reward cascade, eating even small amounts of sugar can cause dependency, in other words, you start to crave more and more. Sugar is intense stuff, causing some powerful reactions in the biochemical centers of your brain.

How many times have you found yourself with a completely full stomach after a huge meal? Although you are barely able to move, you make it your mission to find any and every extra space available to fit one or more pieces of delicious dessert down your throat—regardless of how uncomfortable you might feel! Is this not the description of a junkie? Someone who will ingest a substance at any cost, to get the fix their body requires?

Once the initial sugar high (from the beta-endorphin release) has died down, that nice feeling of calmness and well-being comes over you. This happens in part because of the slow-release action of another neurotransmitter in the brain called serotonin.

Unfortunately, this feeling doesn’t last forever— In fact, the temporary “lust for life” you had after ingesting all that sugar caused by elevated beta-endorphins, and the calming effects of the serotonin will eventually come to screeching halt! Yep, you crash. You then need more of what started your “high” in the first place, and the vicious cycle of the sugar and carbohydrate cravings starts all over again.

Be blessed
Jeremyhawkins.net

i.Cooper SJ, et al. Endorphins and food intake: kappa opioid receptor agonists and hyperphagia. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 1985 Nov 1985 Nov;23(5):889-901.

ii.King B. Fat Wars Action Planner. Wiley $ Sons. Toronto, Ont. 2003 pg. 21.