Your Sweet Tooth Is Stressing You Out
For Americans, the consumption of sugar is a main part of their diet, even if it's unintentional. Many food companies add sugar in their products, even in those that don't necessarily need it. For kids, the effects are intensified, especially when the brain is in its prime development days. A graph from the CDC shows that from 2005-2008, there has been a huge increase of sugar consumption from children ages 2-19, and it's safe to say that it has only gotten worse.
Discoveries in recent years have shown that an addiction to sugar is just as bad, if not worse, than drug addiction. It's looking like sugar addiction rehab will be a lucrative business in the future.
But it doesn't end there. Last month, The Conversation released a new article on the brain, specifically the hippocampus, which reveal that the effects of sugar are similar to extreme stress or abuse. It was conducted using female rats, who were divided into two groups: the control and the stressed, and then sub-grouped to whether they were given sugar or not. During the course, they were given different amounts of shelter, food and water to stimulate real life experiences humans would have. At the end of fifteen weeks, their brains were examined. The results showed that the unstressed rats who were given sugar had similar affects to the stressed rats without sugar.
The hippocampus is very important since it control memory, therefore learning and emotional capacities. It is also related to maltreatment as well.
Image credit: Wikipedia/BruceBlaus
It's uncertain how similar the results will be in humans, even though rats share 90% of our genetic make up, and how this study will impact food companies if there is more imposed FDA regulations on adding refined sugar to food.
Source: The Conversation
