Contents:
- Medical Video: What Does Sugar Do To Your Body? 10 Proven Negative Effects of Sugar
- What are the effects of sweet foods on the brain?
- 1. Sweet foods can affect the brain until you are addicted
- 2. Interfering with thinking skills
- 3. Too often sweet foods make you depressed
- 4. Triggers cognitive decline and increases the risk of Alzheimer's
Medical Video: What Does Sugar Do To Your Body? 10 Proven Negative Effects of Sugar
Who doesn't like sweet food? Some literature even states that actually all humans like sweetness, but with varying levels. But, if you're a sweet fanatic fan, then you should be more aware of your health condition. Because, foods with high sugar are not only bad for diabetics, but they are also bad for the health of your brain.
What are the effects of sweet foods on the brain?
Here are the effects that occur in your brain if you eat too often high-sugar foods
1. Sweet foods can affect the brain until you are addicted
Believe it or not, sweets can make you addicted like someone who is addicted to cigarettes or alcohol. Yes, when sweet foods, such as candy, chocolate, or ice cream enter the mouth, the tongue will interpret the sweetness in the food. Then, the tongue directly signals the brain and stimulates the production of the hormone dopamine, the happiness hormone.
Usually, dopamine hormone will be produced naturally by the body if you experience something pleasant. However, if the amount of this hormone is too much in the body, it can cause addiction and the desire to consume more sweet foods.
Even in a study conducted on obese children, sweet foods are known to activate the part of the brain that regulates the response food reward, which is a desire to receive a reward, but in this case the desired reward is food containing high sugar itself.
2. Interfering with thinking skills
Research conducted in 2012 from the University of California, Los Angeles gave fructose (one type of sugar) to experimental animals. Then, at the end of the study it was known that high sugar intake caused nerve damage which became the center of thinking and communication in mice.
Not only that, the experimental animals also found resistance to the hormone insulin, a hormone that plays a role in regulating blood sugar levels and brain cell function. Inside the central nerve, the hormone insulin has a responsibility to connect nerve cells in communication. So, if the amount of insulin is not normal due to sweet foods, it can cause nerve cells not to communicate properly and a lot of information is not delivered, and the ability to remember decreases.
Although this study was conducted in mice, but researchers believe that this can also occur in the human brain.
3. Too often sweet foods make you depressed
The first response that arises when you eat sweet foods is an increase in happiness hormone, the hormone dopamine. However, if you eat these foods too often, what you feel is not feeling happy or happy, but depression and feeling depressed. Why does this happen?
Sugar and all foods that contain carbohydrates can actually damage the brain's neurotranstimitters (substances that mediate communication between nerve cells) which function to stabilize mood. So, it's natural that after eating foods with high sugar, you experience emotional changes.
In fact this has been proven in a study that found that groups of people who often eat instant foods that contain high sugar tend to be more easily depressed and have excessive anxiety.
4. Triggers cognitive decline and increases the risk of Alzheimer's
Many studies have found that high-sugar diets can cause Alzheimer's disease. A study conducted in 2013 said that the condition of insulin resistance and high sugar levels is not only a sign of diabetes, but also increases the risk of damage to brain tissue that can cause Alzheimer's. Even the researchers refer to Alzheimer's disease as type 3 diabetes because this disease arises due to frequent consumption of sweet foods.
