Cakes, and strudels, and creme puffs, and cookies, and I’m sure there’s at least one kind of sugary sweet that can make anyone’s mouth water. But have you ever wondered why this particular food tickles us more than other?
The simple truth is carbohydrates, especially glucose, are a very efficient source of energy, and as such are favoured by both our body and mind. This developed a long, long time ago, in our early history, when tribes roamed the world in search for subsistence. It was integral to pick out the best fuel source possible so that we could go on another day so we became hard wired by evolution to recognise and prioritise sweetness.
Our bodies use two main types of energy reserves, fats and sugars (glucose). Out of these, sugar is the preferred fuel for the brain, so is it any surprise that we are inadvertently drawn to a chocolate glazed, creme filled doughnut?
But it goes even beyond that. When we do something our survival instincts approve of, our brain releases hormones that make us feel good.
Sugar, itself, isn’t bad. If we don't count the increased chance of cavities. No matter how much fruit and veggies we eat, they won’t hurt us. The real problem came when we refined sugar to its super sweet white powder form.
Now we could get the compound we craved with no limits or restrictions. So that’s great, you’d think, we can get more energy. Well it’s not exactly like that. As any system, our body has limits to what it can use and store. When we eat a whole box of delicious chocolate cookies, we can’t process all of it. But nothing goes to waste is the motto, so when we can no longer absorb the sugar, and our livers have resupplied on glycogen, the body turns the rest into fat. And that’s something nobody likes.
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