by Madison Postuma
Over many years researchers have studied addiction. They follow addicts to study their everyday life and how they got into this addictive way of living. A scientist will consistently look at his or her findings to figure out what all addicts have in common. The answer is right under their nose and can be seen when they look in the mirror. The scientist is a human being. The fact of the matter is every person can become addicted to things very easily if they are not cautious. Sugar, according to Margaret L. Westwater et al. (2016) at Cambridge University, is in the same addictive category as drugs. They conducted an experiment with rats showing rats use sugar as a reward after a time of fasting. They concluded rats, given the choice between chow and a sugar solution after a fast, go for the sugar solution even if it’s less nutritious. They do this, because sugar is a fast source of energy. The brain is intelligent, and it knows to go for the quickest source of energy. However, after the crash, the brain craves more. They say people usually consume foods with multiple nutrients that are taken into their bodies and used as fuel. However, a food that is highly addictive usually contains one nutrient. The most addictive being high fat and sugar. The more carbohydrates and fat per serving the more problematic the food will be. These highly processed problematic foods are usually low in fiber, protein, and water. This means they are absorbed fast into our bloodstream (Westwater et al., 2016). I know from the rat study that sugar is not only addictive, but it yields disease: heart disease according to the article The Sweet Danger of Sugar (2019). They conclude in the article that too much sugar overloads the liver converting the extra glucose into fat. This excess fat builds up and can put a person at risk for clogged arteries resulting in these deadly diseases (The sweet danger of sugar, 2019). Heart disease is something to be extremely cautious about, especially when living in well- developed, first-world countries because unfortunately the disease is the number one killer for Americans. The total amount of deaths in America from chronic disease is 70%. Seventy-five percent of the health care dollars are spent on chronic disease alone. Luckily, multiple health care professionals argue that changing diet can dramatically lower one’s risk for deadly chronic diseases. One dietary change recommendations is lowering sugar (Disease prevention, 2019).
Many people use over the counter face washes, clinical facials, and maybe botox when trying to solve wrinkles and aging lines. However, it is uncommon for people to examine their diet when it can actually play a key factor in the aging process. Whitney Bowe, a dermatologist, says sugar can age a person (as cited in Franzino, 2020). It may not be as drastic as overnight changes, but over time excess sugar in one’s diet can increase a process called glycation. This process, Bowe explains, “happens when excess sugar speeds up the breakdown of collagen and elastin, which keep skin firm” (as cited in Franzino, 2020). Less collagen and elastin in the skin equals more wrinkles as these two fibers keep the skin radiant. Sugar and simple carbs also cause inflammation in the body because the sugar can drive the skin to be inflamed and promote acne. Humans need inflammation to survive; when they get hurt, the body uses its inflammatory responses to save their lives. However, chronic inflammation can result in many tragedies for the body. Pahwa et al. (2020) say there are many more effects that chronic inflammation can have on the body. In their academic article, it says “[b]ody pain, [c]onstant fatigue and insomnia, depression, anxiety and mood disorders, [g]astrointestinal complications like constipation, diarrhea, and acid reflux, weight gain, and frequent infections can be results of chronic inflammation.” These things can happen when the body is fed food that causes inflammation (like simple sugars), or it is stressed out because the body goes into attack mode. Pahwa et al. (2020) explain that the body tries to protect itself by using inflammation as an immune response. However, if a person is constantly stressed and constantly eating high-fat, high-sugar foods, the body will be in this fight or flight mode all the time which causes wear out. The immune system will start attacking itself which is where we get autoimmune diseases (Pahwa et al., 2020). These are things that can affect someone’s everyday life. Cutting out high glycemic foods is their first recommendation to lowering chronic inflammation. This strongly suggests that there is a parallel between sugar and chronic inflammation.
With all the physical repercussions of overeating sugar habitually, there are some effects this habit has on an even smaller level. Clinical nutritionist Sharon Brown, also the founder of Bonafide Provisions which is a bone broth company, shares a little bit on how the body reacts to an excessive input of sugar in an interview. Brown (2020) first explains that when a person first eat sugar the body converts it into glucose to use as energy. The pancreas will respond by producing insulin, so it can get glucose into the cells to use the glucose as energy. The problem with this is people are consuming too much sugar, and they aren’t expending all the energy. As such, the body will keep putting that glucose into cells because the body is trying to stay alive, but they will be stored as fat cells. Brown (2020) also cautions against “fake” sugars because of how the body responds to them. A fake sugar is an alternative sugar, usually with zero calories and additives to make it seem sweeter. A person’s body thinks it is eating something really sweet, so it kicks out a bunch of insulin to compensate, but the body isn’t using it. Brown (2020) says, “[t]his is why people drinking diet soda everyday will gain about five pounds over a year’s time.” When someone is eating excess sugar and not using energy, they gain weight and not the healthy kind but as unhealthy body fat. Excess body fat can have serious negative repercussions for the body. According to the National Institute of Health (2015) excess body fat can place one at risk for “type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and strokes, certain types of cancer, sleep apnea, Osteoarthritis, fatty liver disease, kidney diseases, pregnancy problems, such as high blood sugar during pregnancy, high blood pressure, and increased risk for cesarean delivery (C-section).” Eating sugar once or twice will not cause chronic disease, but when it is eaten every day without expelling the excess energy it can. As such, it is smart to eat balanced and compare one’s food intake to one’s activity levels. This is recommended by not only Harvard professionals, but every nutritionist or medical care professional interested in health and wellbeing of the patient.
Not only will excess sugar lead to physical complications like acne, inflammation, or deadly heart diseases, but it can negatively affect a person’s brain. A study done by Iman et al. (2016) at the University of Karachi faculty of Pharmacy in Pakistan concluded the effects of a long-term high-sugar diet on the brain of rats. They separated the rats into groups of males and females, then they split those groups into two subgroups. One subgroup was given a standard rat diet of chow and water. The other group was given chow, but with a 3:1 ratio of sugar in it. They studied the rats’ level of anxiety over 5 weeks. They found that the rats eating a high-carbohydrate diet, or high-sugar diet, “suggested that excessive consumption of sugar may put female sex at a greater risk of sugar craving and anxiety,” (Inam et al., 2016). They say this because those rats on a high-sugar diet were low in an amino acid Tryptophan and 5-HT (or serotonin). Serotonin is metabolized in the liver, and low 5-HT levels means the rats were more vulnerable to anxiety disorders and more drastic sugar cravings. A surprising result of the study is that it was the female rats that were more affected by this than their male counterparts. They also came to the conclusion that sugar can first be used as an anxiety antidote, but then the rats ended up decreasing levels of serotonin that made them feel more anxious later (Inam et al., 2016). It was very contradicting that the sugar was being used as a way to cope with the stress that it was giving itself. This can be dangerous as it becomes a cycle much like a drug. A person gets anxious, eats sugar, feels relieved, then their serotonin levels drop from eating the sugar, and they want more sugar. Furthermore, it seems a person is more vulnerable when they are emotionally drained. Since sugar has shown itself in research to be highly addictive, because of its low nutrients and quick energy supply, the cycle can become not only physiologically hard to break but psychologically. People are now dealing with not only physical addiction withdrawal, but possible mental withdrawals. According to Link (2017), a neuropsychologist, eating foods that are high in sugar will release dopamine into the brain. This is a feel good hormone making us feel happy, and it stimulates our reward center of our brain—the same part of our brain used to feel the pleasure of sex or the high of drugs. The more sugar a person eats, the more of it he or she will need to maintain that level of dopamine. It becomes a sugar addiction. Link (2017) says, “Thanks to its effect on dopamine and the reward centers in your brain, many studies have found that sugar works like certain types of drugs, such as cocaine, and giving it up can produce symptoms similar to opioid withdrawal,” (Link, 2017). This can be brought back and validated by the rat study. When someone cuts excessive sugar from their life, it is advised to be done with caution. The reason is one of the side effects of quitting sugar is depression and anxiety. These are things that cannot be taken lightly as mental illnesses need the same amount of attention as physical illnesses. So quitting sugar should come with a clear plan, and (I would recommend) with the assistance and guidance of a healthcare professional.
To explain how to break this reward centered, dopamine thriving cycle, I have to explain how reward cycles work. According to Charles Duhigg (2014), author of The Power of Habit, there are three steps in a habit cycle: cue, routine, and reward. The cue is something that tells the brain to start the routine. It is like a set off. For example, in the case of eating sugar, it could be someone is experiencing anxiety. Now that they have become anxious, the brain goes into the routine. This could be they go to their freezer and grab Ben and Jerry’s chocolate brownie ice cream, and they sit on the couch eating it. The reward then would be the dopamine from the sugar lifting some of their anxiety (Duhigg, 2014, p. 19). If someone is reaching for sugar because they are anxious, a good thing to work on is the cue portion of this. To change the cue someone would have to get to the root cause of why they are actually taking the action. Once the trigger is found, then they can take steps to not pull it. Let’s start with the anxiety cue. The trigger is the anxiety. How can the subject change this cue? Well this means looking at what is making them anxious, and their coping mechanisms to relieve that anxiety. Let’s look at what kind of stress there is. According to the Mayo Clinic Staff (2019), there is acute and chronic stress. Acute stress is someone’s flight or fight response as a result to stressful events which can help them save their lives. However, when the stress persists longer than the stressful situation, it becomes chronic stress. Chronic stress can be less easy to detect as it persists over a longer stretch of time. A death of a family member, divorce, a new child, moving houses, unfulfilling work, and so on can all put a lot of built up stress on a person without them even being aware of it. However, there can also be internal stress based off of expectation humans put on themselves. Also fear and lack of control can play into this as well (Stress symptoms, 2019; Identify your stress triggers, 2019). With stress, it can and should be managed. A couple ways one can do this is getting regular exercise, meditating, spending time with friends and family, and picking up a hobby. When it comes to changing the cues for eating sugar, taking up new hobbies and meditating daily to relieve that anxiety will help decrease the need for a mood booster in the first place.
Eating excessive amounts of sugar can be cued by many different things. However, someone can also break the cycle by changing the routine. Another reason for overeating sugar is a person is bored, and the first thing they reach for is a snack. Usually snacks, even the healthy ones, are packaged and have added sugar. For example, an American with an average western diet might go to their cupboard and see Nature Valley granola bars have around 14 grams of added sugar per bar. They need to be mindful of that and work on changing this routine. A practical way to break the habit cycle of bored eating is picking up a hobby the subject enjoys doing or choosing a new thing they want to learn. When they get bored, they practice their hobby or engulf themselves in learning something new. Another way is replacing junk food with whole foods. There are biological reasons people are not inclined to binge eat apples. The apple has fiber, vitamins, minerals, and sugars. The body knows what an apple is and knows how to use its nutrients. According to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital (2019), when something is high in fiber, it takes longer to digest. Which means that the sugars in the food is absorbed into one’s bloodstream slower resulting in a slow rise in blood sugar instead of a spike. Fiber is also good at keeping our bowels moving regularly because fiber rich foods move through our intestinal tract faster. This cleans a lot of someone’s intestinal tract, thus making a fiber rich diet recommended for preventing colon cancer. Fiber is also high in volume making someone feel full at a faster pace than less fibrous foods (Why is fiber so good for you?, 2019). This can be a really smart way to break that habit cycle. Eating fresh fruits and veggies packed with fiber can keep someone full while eating less. Since they have fiber, they aren’t spiking one’s blood sugar and the body remains in good homeostasis. This can be part of the argument that fruit sugar is not the same as table sugar. The fruit has other nutrients breaking down in a person’s digestive tract along with the sugar. It is not then resulting in an insulin spike.
Speaking on relative terms with the current COVID-19 pandemic, sugar could be a burden on people’s immune system. According to Ullah et al. (2016) from the University of Zakaryia in Pakistan, eating sugar has “a direct and severe effect on the immune system”. This is because sugar decreases the reactivity of white blood cells. They decrease the amount of white blood cells by 40%; plus, sugar stays in someone’s system for 2 to 5 hours after being eaten. For every 100 grams of sugar, their immune system will be disabled for about 4 to 5 hours (Ullah et al., 2016). COVID-19 is extremely prevalent right now as it has most likely affected every aspect of everyone’s lives. However, people are not only fighting a disease, but unhealthy lifestyle choices. Decreasing white blood cell reactivity by eating sugar is a major breakthrough in immune system health. It could also not be more prevalent. What one chooses to eat does have an impact on their health. Sugar decreases the functioning of our immune system putting people at risk for more viruses and diseases including and not limited to COVID-19. While washing hands and social distancing is very important, eating well and taking care of the body is equally as important.
Breaking a sugar addiction can be challenging. Not only is it hard to give up because it tastes amazing, but studies like Inam et al. (2016) show a connection between sugar and dopamine, thus suggesting that sugar can be as hard to give up as a drug. It also can have the same side effects going off it as it would with cocaine. This can come with physical side effects, and health risks, but also mental side effects. Mental side effects can be as serious, if not more serious, than physical side effects and perpetuate excessive sugar consumption. While not all sugar is equal (like fruit sugar), it is still a part of the world. It can be the glue that holds lots of processed foods on the market together. For how much an individual gains from eating sugar, consider how much they lose. It has been concluded most habits are subconscious. People could be sabotaging their physical and mental health without a single clue that they are doing it. With all the conclusive research and the well proposed experiments, it is valid and reasonable for someone to cut the added sugar out indefinitely.
References
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