To formulate an answer to this question, it is important to properly understand all the subtleties. Let’s start with the physiological mechanisms of sugar processing, which behaves like a real terrorist in our body. What is a terrorist supposed to do? That’s right: capture and explode. That’s what sugar does.
Although initially mother nature conceived everything a little differently. Yes, sugar is found in a lot of natural products — in sugar beets and cane, honey, fruits, vegetables, milk … People of the distant past found sweets as attractive as we are now. Another thing is that, having dug up, say, sugar beet, they could either eat it raw, or, for example, bake it on a fire or in an oven. Sugar beet is 80% water, and some of it is dietary fiber, which makes the structure of the beet so hard. To get a certain amount of sugar, a person had to work hard, chew and grind a hard vegetable with his teeth, due to which the beets spent much more time in the mouth and stomach before entering the intestines. What does this mean? That sugar entered the body slowly and the increase in blood sugar also occurred quite slowly.
A regular chocolate bar is about half pure sugar. There is no dietary fiber in it at all, so the time that a chocolate bar spends in our stomach is extremely limited. The result is a rapid, almost instant increase in blood sugar levels. If you are tired and exhausted, drinking pure sugar will give you an instant boost of energy. However, our body has to pay dearly for this surge. Mother nature could not even imagine that a person would think of extracting sugar in its pure form, refining it and then eating it. Our body is in no way designed to process such volumes of sugar. Do you need an answer to the question «Is sugar bad»? ..
- “Thanks to the disease, I realized that my life would someday end”
When sugar enters the body, the pancreas begins to produce the hormone insulin. It is necessary to convince the cells to process sugar and use it as «energy fuel» for the body. The amount of insulin production directly depends on the amount of sugar in the blood, since the pancreas adjusts the production of the hormone to the current urgent needs.
The problem with absorbing pure refined sugars, such as those found in a candy bar, is that the pancreas doesn’t have time to produce the right amount of insulin in time. The amount of sugar in the blood rises too quickly and too much. As a result, there is a “carb peak”, too high a level of sugar that cannot be processed. In itself, this can lead to damage to blood vessels, contributes to the accumulation of cholesterol and the development of a variety of diseases … But who would stop it.
What happens next? Excessively high blood sugar levels last only a short time, and then the sugar level collapses. The pancreas, panting, is still trying to cope with this sugar fountain, adjusting the production of insulin — and then oops! Sugar supply was suddenly interrupted. The fountain is gone. The poor pancreas again does not have time to slow down the production of insulin so quickly. As a result, a temporary “insulin peak” occurs in the body, when there is still too much insulin, and there is already very little sugar. The hormone honestly does its job, diligently utilizing all the sugar that it can reach. The key word is all. As a result, hypoglycemia occurs, a condition in which the amount of sugar in the blood falls sharply below the average normal values. A condition recognized by the body as dangerous, painful, catastrophic. Anxiety! Urgent intervention needed! This is how our body reacts to this state.
We have all experienced hypoglycemia at least once: weakness in the knees, nausea and dizziness, feeling terribly tired and hungry. Moreover, a very specific hunger, when the body screams in all voices — no sugar, no sugar at all, give me something sweet as soon as possible! And, choosing at this moment what to eat, we are highly likely to reach for a cookie, sweetened coffee or a piece of cake.
The cycle closes. A new batch of refined sugars again causes a carbohydrate peak — followed by insulin — weakness — a bout of hunger — and all over again.
The long-term effects of sugar consumption are also well known. A cell “engaged” in the processing of carbohydrates is completely absorbed in this work, and it has no time to process fats (work is slower and more thoughtful). So in those moments when sugar is processed, fat stands still and does not go anywhere.
The second unpleasant consequence for us is that the liver, like a vacuum cleaner, grabs all the extra sugars in order to form reserve fat reserves from them. Purely just in case — suddenly hungry times will come. This is how this, in essence, mechanism of dependence works at the physiological level. On a psychological, behavioral level, we associate pure sugars with a saving surge of energy, strength, and peace that comes for a short time after their use. We should not forget that the use of large amounts of sugar contributes to the production of serotonin — the most important neurotransmitter, one of the functions of which is to give us a feeling of joy, satisfaction and good mood.
And here, attention, there is a small trap. By itself, sugar is not able to directly affect the production of serotonin. Some other substances influence its production. They are believed to be found, for example, in pure chocolate (70% cocoa and above) and bananas. Therefore, if our craving for sweets is caused not only by a banal physiological dependence, but also by serotonin hunger, then in an attempt to get the right amount of substances from sweets, we will be forced to gobble up a pound of chocolates. That is why so often in modern dietology it is recommended not to completely block the use of fast carbohydrates, but to replace them with pure, natural chocolate and a couple of bananas a day. By the way, eating salty, spicy, spicy foods, such as chips and salted nuts, leads to the same serotonin effect. Chocolate addicts are no different from chip lovers.
- Why do you crave sweets so much in winter?
And now let’s see what happens in everyday weight loss practice. A person buys a book describing a new effective diet or goes to see a nutritionist. The specialist, knowing how sugar works in the body, the first thing he says is cut back on all foods that contain it. Do not eat cakes and ice cream! Yes, honey and chocolates are also not worth it. Fruits also contain sugar! You pick up your new diet plan and trudge home. Hang it on the refrigerator and start a new life from Monday.
For a while, everything goes well — the heady feeling of control over your own body makes sure that there is enough serotonin for the time being, and you almost don’t want sweets. You try to be your nutritionist’s best patient and don’t eat any sugars—not even fruit. Fruit is not allowed. Especially tangerines, bananas and grapes.
And then you overwork at work, quarrel with your husband, lose your passport. You get tired, a state of hypoglycemia sets in — but fruits are not allowed, and you hold on. As a result, higher-level mental mechanisms take over you and say — listen as much as possible, you held on for three weeks and were a bunny, come on. And you go and buy a cake. Because you can’t have grapes. Because the cake can’t be all the more so, and that makes it more attractive than grapes. And this is a kind of mental deal with yourself — you haven’t eaten grapes for a month. Tangerines too. So once a piece … two, three, whoever counts — cake!
Do you remember that fruits and vegetables have dietary fiber, but cakes do not?
And this is just one of dozens of traps of dietary thinking. As part of normal eating behavior, on average, you eat fast refined carbohydrates once or twice a month, no more — at a relative’s birthday or at a restaurant with friends. I don’t want to anymore. The rest of the time I want “clean products”, pure simple tastes. You begin to feel the «chemistry» in this or that mixed food. The hypoglycemic crisis that occurs after eating sweets against the background of a long break is recognized by the body as something unpleasant, alien, a state that should be avoided — and as a result, something like alertness is formed to the notorious “cakes”, which appears from the products that you once accidentally poisoned .
- What’s wrong with «good» advice?
We figured out the physiology, but that’s not all. There is also eating behavior, there are meanings with which we endow food.
I’ll give you an example. At some point, the number of our patients exceeded our capacity, and we were forced to stop accepting newcomers for psychotherapy. This meant that some of our patients began to work with a nutritionist and exercise, but the appointment with a psychotherapist had to wait several months.
Over time, I, like all other colleagues, got a few patients from this group. They all faced the same problem. They could ideally meet the required three meals a day of the right foods. They had a thorough breakfast, a hearty dinner — everything was as it should be. The problems started between meals. That’s when handfuls of chocolates and packets of cookies were used. Because it wasn’t really about “food” — it was about “eating behavior” — and this is an area where a nutritionist can’t help (except to shrug and suggest you “pull yourself together and don’t do it again”) .
The human body is a complex, multi-storey building. Trying to change it, do not forget to take an interest in what is happening on all floors.
To be continued.