Why Do We Crave Sugar?
TODAY’S LESSON: WHY DO WE CRAVE SUGAR?
The answer: DOPAMINE! Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps to control feelings of reward and pleasure. We get dopamine hits from many healthy sources, such as physical touch and exercise, but unfortunately, we also see a spike in dopamine when we have caffeine, narcotics, and – yes – sugar.
When we eat sugar, the dopamine response we get encourages us to continually search for that pleasurable feeling. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if you were receiving these signals from eating nutrient-dense sources of sugar, like fruit and honey. Sadly, that’s not what happens today. Today, it’s most often refined forms of sugar that are empty of nutrients that are triggering the release of dopamine, which leaves you with a constant desire for more sugar!
WHERE SUGAR HIDES
- Boxed cereals: Sugar is usually in these products, even those that are considered healthy, in a least two different forms, like honey or cane sugar and brown rice syrup.
- Salad dressings: Most premade dressings have added sugar. Even worse, the diet varieties have artificial sweeteners.
- Pasta sauces: Most store-bought pasta sauces contain added sugar: to cover up some less-than-ripe tomatoes in the sauce, to act as a preservative, or even as a flavor enhancer.
There are more than fifty ways to list sweeteners in an ingredients list without the word “sugar” even appearing! Click here to get your free guide to hidden sugars.
Start going through your pantry using the free guide to help! If you’d like more support kicking sugar to the curb, contact me here.
Talk soon,
Kate
About Me
I am a seeker of balance. With each of my clients we search to find, what can we do with the biological resources we have to feel good in our bodies? How can we maximize our body’s unique potential in a way that respects body diversity, takes our different lifestyles into account, and empowers us to bypass harmful societal messaging around what we’re “supposed” to look like?
