Your Brain on Sugar

Excerpt from a Marie Clare article by Joanne Chen published 6/19

Is sugar worse for you than, say, cocaine? According to a 2012 article in the journal Nature, it's a toxic substance that should be regulated like tobacco and alcohol.

Researchers point to studies that show that too much sugar (both in the form of natural sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup) not only makes us fat, it also wreaks havoc on our liver, mucks up our metabolism, impairs brain function, and may leave us susceptible to heart disease, diabetes, even cancer.

80 percent of our food choices contain sugar. When tasting sugar, the brain lights up in the same regions as it would in an alcoholic with a bottle of gin. Dopamine—the so-called reward chemical—spikes and reinforces the desire to have more. (Sugar also fuels the calming hormone serotonin.)

Here, the most common sugar-induced issues. Click on the article to read more and get a handle on  how to beat them to prevent long-term damage—and feel your best right now.

STRESS EATING 

INEXPLICABLE WEIGHT GAIN

BRAIN FOG

AGING SKIN

A SLUGGISH WORKOUT