My intention is to never spam but after getting this in an ad I had received today.. I couldn't resist sharing. I really think there is truth to it. It explains why we feel the need to eat sweets or anything that is just not good for you and with the struggles we have endured in our lives.. it would explain things.
Quote:
Why then are we so addicted to sweets?
Surely the answer must be a combination of genetic and social
programming.
Note the interesting thing is not everyone is addicted to sweets.
Some people crave salt. But given the figures on diabetes and
obesity, sweet craving is far more common.
The story I told you at the beginning of the email illustrates just
how deeply in our brains the sweet craving is.
People with Alzheimer's and other forms of neurological disorders often
demonstrate "frontal release" which is just a fancy way of saying
that the higher centers of their brains don't work well any more.
Thus their judgment is impaired and their "preferences" for food
may be lodged in the deeper, older and more primitive parts of
their brains.
So take away the part that makes each of us who we are and we still
crave sweets.
This tells me that buried deep within the collective human makeup
is a biochemical response to sweets that says "good" or "reward".
It probably has something to do with brain chemicals like
endorphins, serotonin, and the like.
As a matter of fact it has been shown that highly refined sugary
foods release tryptophan, the forerunner of serotonin, faster than
any other kind.
Hence the truth to milk and cookies as a relaxant.
The other thing I can tell you from observation and personal
experience is that the later you stay up and the more stress you
are under, the more likely you are to crave those quick hitting
carbs to get you through the high stress period.
The brain and body tend to like that fast blast of sugar when they
are in fight or flight stress mode.
With millions of Americans noting the high level of stress in their
lives, and eating becoming something we have to do rather than plan
to do it's easy to see how this stress driven culture O.D.'s on
refined sugars.
The food industry is pretty slick as well. They bury sugar in the
form of cheap corn syrup and others in many forms.
Here are a few examples where industry research has shown that
adding sugar improves sales: bread, spaghetti sauce, cereal,
energy drinks.
Finally, there is the deeply ingrained reward behavior: if you are
good as a child you get a sweet treat.
I have watched conscientious families fight the good fight with
their kids and sugar. They keep the kid away from sugar for the
first 5 years of their lives while they are at home only to find
that as soon as they are school age, peer pressure takes over and
all that hard work is lost.
I have said many times that sugar has damaged human society far
more than any artificial sweetener has or ever could.
14 Sep 2008, 6:54 am
