Why do we love sugar and sweetnesses ?
Your craving for sugar is inborn
In the old days, when human being were living in the forest, sweetness was an indication that a particular thing was safe to eat. There is probably no food in nature that is both sweet and toxic.
Sugar is actually quite healthy when consumed in moderate amount and its natural form, also packed with nutrition, fibre and other healthy stuff.
Sugar stimulates the brain's reward system by triggering the release of neurotransmiters that promote a sense of well-being. That mechanism may well play a role in our fondness for sweets.
The brain is an energy-hungry organ that needed a constant supply of calories. Vegetables carry little energy compared to fruits.
In ages of scarcity fruits supplied energy, helped us store fat in case you couldn't find food. It was survival mechanism.
Sugars (carbohydrates) are the first energy source the body goes to : they are much faster to break down into energy than their protein and fat counterpart.
We need energy.
We need to eat !
And it is sugars (carbs!) that are preferred fuel source for cell in our body.
We have taken the sweetness out of food and used it in isolation, away from all the good stuff that comes packed with it in nature. Desserts and sugary drinks spike your blood sugar quickly.
Fruit seldom do so unless you eat too much too quickly, which is a very difficult to do in natural environment.
Sweetness in isolation has thus become deadly, the precursor of many illnesses including diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure.
The brain release certain chemicals called opioids which gave the body pleasurable feeling at the sight and taste of sugar.
Knowing this physiological effect, unscrupulous manufacturers add sugar even where, logically, it should not be , in order to create addiction to the product and increase sales. That why processed food is so popular today.
But if you want to be healthy, you shouldn't completely ignore your evolutionary craving for sugary foods (BUT IN MODERATION).
If you are involved in intellectual process, make serious decisions every day, memorise and process a lots of information, you are a sport lover, you spend all day on your feet these quick carbs as sugar (IN NATURAL FORMS) are important for you to supply energy and nourish and calm the mind.
When we are stressed out we have high level of a hormone called cortisol, and we crave sugar because we get another hormone called serotonin, which is calming and relaxing.
Your body is programmed to eat sugar when you are feeling stressed.
