We all know that the presence of large amounts of sugar in our diets can lead to obesity, tooth decay and diabetes, but the knowledge of these dangers is still not render on us any influence at the selection of ice cream, candy or soda. Maybe our brains are programmed to want sweets? And if so, how sugar affects the main organ of the Central nervous system?
Why do we love sweets?
Glucose is one of the most common sources of energy on the planet. Nourishing the cells that make up our body including the neurons of the brain, based products sugar are excellent sources of quick energy, which our body thinks sweets are the most pleasant to use substance.
As the portal livescience.comwhen we eat sweet foods, our brains in large quantities secretes a special hormone — dopamine, which is responsible for getting man of pleasure. The desire to get even more positive emotions causes a person to seek new sources of glucose, which are abundant in the world around us. However, due to the fact that at the present time for the production of sweet food, we don’t need to take any special effort, a person can easily become addicted to eating sugar.
See also: the Most popular sweetener turned deadly
Food addiction is a controversial topic among doctors and scientists. The question of whether to equate the addiction from food to drugs, has been discussed for decades, as opposed to intoxicating substances, food is necessary to man as one of the main elements for survival. However, surely practically every one of us may be the most familiar, experiencing more cravings for sweet food during the experience of stress or hunger. In order to resist the thrust, man must suppress a natural reaction that occurs in a network of inhibitory neurons, concentrated in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. It is known that this type of neurons involved in the decision-making, impulse control and postponement of pleasure.
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The studies conducted on rats showed that consumption of diets high in sugar can change the brake neurons, making the animal less able to control their behavior and make decisions. A sharp change in their diet have also shown that disturbances in inhibitory neurons make such a difficult our transition to a more healthy type of food.
For example, one recent study asked people to evaluate how they want to eat high-calorie snacks when they feel hungry, compared to when they just had lunch. Peoplewho regularly ate food high in fat and carbohydrates, evaluated their attraction to the snacks above, even when they were not hungry.
The experiment suggests that regular consumption of food with high sugar content can increase thrust to their use of even greater force, creating a kind of vicious circle. In addition, sugar-induced changes in the hippocampus can affect our memory and cognitive abilities. In order to neutralize the harmful effects vysokovoltnoe diet, experts recommend the use of foods rich in omega-3 fats, which, incidentally, are an excellent neuroprotectant and even stimulate the emergence of in our body of new neurons.