Appetite’s No Accident: Sugar Makes It Worse by Joan Kent, PhD
Here’s some info about sugar and appetite you may not know.
Endorphins
Sugar triggers endorphins (beta-endorphin). Endorphins inhibit the part of the brain that causes satiety – the feeling that we’ve had enough food and don’t need more for a while. That part of the brain is the VMH.
When we eat sugar, the sugar triggers endorphins that block VMH action. So we want more food at a given meal. Or we may want to eat again sooner than we normally would.
Endorphins can also change which foods we want. They’re apt to make us want more endorphin-triggering foods. That means sugars or fats.
Either way, sugar will probably change your food landscape. Maybe a lot.
Priming
Endorphins due to sugar will trigger another brain chemical – dopamine – just enough to make us want more sugar. This is probably the best reason not to follow the common advice to eat some sugar when you crave it. (Terrible advice!)
Some people are more susceptible to this ‘priming’ effect than others. If it affects you, you may find you want more sugar after you’ve eaten a little bit. You may even lose control of your sugar consumption for a day. Or longer.
Withdrawal
People joke about being chocoholics or sugar addicts, but other people know it isn’t a joke. If you eat sugar often, you may crave it when it’s not around – or when some time has passed since you’ve had any. That could be a sign of withdrawal.
If you’re also feeling kinda cranky, it most likely is withdrawal. If so, you’ll probably crave sugar and eat more of it.
Bottom Line
Sugar can impact appetite dramatically. It can also increase fat in our diets. Think of all the sugary foods – ice cream, chocolate cake, donuts – that contain a lot of fat, as well. Those fats are typically not the most healthful ones, making a bad nutrition slam even worse.
By the way, alcohol can affect appetite in similar ways – and sometimes even more strongly than sugar. But that’s a different post.
If you’d like to get away from sugar but have been feeling stuck, I would love to help. Just visit LastResortNutrition and grab your free Power Eating Consult. Find out how easy it can be to take back control of your appetite. You deserve it!
Brought to you by Dr. Joan Kent, best-selling author of Stronger Than Sugar.
