Sugar; The Sweet Addicting Drug We Cannot Do Without

1 day ago

^{I was talking with my sisters yesterday, and in the middle of our conversation, I realized that almost everything we consume contains sugar with the naturally occurring one in food, and the artificial in packaged edible products. The level at which we consume sugar wasn't clear to me, until I googled and found out that we produce about 120 million tons of sugar annually worldwide, but it is a different thing when words like it isn't meeting supply comes into play but this wasn't what I saw rather, I saw that the consumption of sugar is increasing by about 2 million tons every year. Which means that we are getting more addicted to this substance, and we are increasing the amount we consume yearly.}

^{It looks like our brain loves sugar so much even when it is seen that it is bad for us leading to high risk of Cancer, diabetes, weight gain, heart disease and many more. I want to quickly mention that when I say sugar, I am referring to a broad group of compound made up of Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Carbon and it is a name for a whole group of sweet carbohydrate ranging from Alpha-D-Fructose, Beta-D-Fructose, Alpha-D-Glucose, Beta-D-Glucose, Sucrose (Saccharose), Lactose, Maltose and so on. To put it in better context, when you check the label of your food, and you find anything ending in -OSE, then is a sugar member.}

^wikimedia

^{Sugar is very confusing to everyone including scientist because it isn't that it is completely bad because the brain actually needs to survive and function being that it consumes one-fifth f the calories we consume daily and this calorie is received in the form of glucose and that is why our brains will reward us when we consume it. Molecules in the food we eat activate receptors on our tongue to help it pick out flavors that are important to our survival. Depending on the flavor, they can mean different things with sour flavor signaling unripe or spoiled food, bitter flavor signalling bad or poisonous food, and sweet to signal good, and easy energy source.}

^{This sweet taste is something our brain wants and will want us to try again. Sugar was a rare deal until Christopher Columbus brought it to the new world with millions of African and Native American Slaves were made to farm this plant for their masters who turned them into money which were then turned into Rum and then to more money to purchase more slaves to plant sugar again. When we realized that sugar could make anything sweet, our appetite for the grain increased with the average British consuming about 4 pound of sugar yearly in 1700 and about 100 pounds in 1900.}

^pexels

^{While we are asked to consume about 25 grams of sugar daily, almost everything around us contains sugar and it lurks in places you will least expect and it causes us to consume a whole lot of sugar daily within 71.14grams and 82 grams daily. This reward system of the brain has to do with flooding of dopamine which is a neurotransmitter and this associates liking thing with wanting to have it over again.}

^{With substances like Drugs and Alcohol, the dopamine level in the reward system increases so high that it leads people to not being able to control the cravings they have and this leads to addiction and it looks like it is the same with sugar but this time, the dopamine explosion is smaller but still addictive. While you might get lower dopamine reward when eating food that do not contain sugar for a long time, it is not the same with food that contains sugar. Instead, the dopamine level will continue to increase the more it is consumed.}

^{With this, it looks like sugar can be categorized as a drug moreover it comes with a plethora of conditions including heart disease, obesity, diabetes and so on. So you do not fall into the trap of getting addicted to sugar, a little self control will be important to keep your health going. I will be signing out here and remember that while I cannot hold you back from consuming that sugar, you can control yourself.}