You know what is the primary use of Glucose? Glucose is primarily used by the brain as a fuel. It is the organ that uses the most energy. The brain uses the most of the glucose in the body but what happens when the brain is exposed to too much sugar. After all when our brains require too much sugar, we eat sugar and because sugar can be too addictive we become addicted to it very easily. In the case of our brain, more is definitely not better.
Eating more sugar makes our body crave for more sugar. Excess sugar can impair our self control and our cognitive skills. The reward centre of the brain is affected by sugar and scientists say that sugar has drug-like affects on it. They make the person lose self control, and make them susceptible to over eating and consequently to weight gain. The foods rich in high-glycemic index can activate the regions associated with reward response. It can provide intense feelings of hunger as compared to low-glycemic foods.
Usually food with higher content of glucose can produce a greater addictive drive in the brain. It can even alter the brain’s reward system. This is thought to be the same process as when somebody gets addicted to alcohol or any other substance and slowly builds their tolerance level. Overtime, the brain requires increasing amounts of sugar to reach the same level of reward. Overeating leads to a diminished reward response system and worsens the addiction progressively. This is seen in cases of low-nutrient foods such as those rich in sugar, salt and fat.
Excess sugar can not only worsen our reward response system but it can also increase the level of glucose in our bloodstream, which means it will slow down our cognitive functions and can cause a number of issues to our memories and concentration. It causes inflammation in brain cells which lead to memory issues. These inflammatory markers may or may not be permanent.
Sugar also affects our mood and very adversely. The brain falters with excess sugar in the bloodstream and emotion processing gets slower. With people whose bodies are unable to synthesize insulin properly have extreme mood fluctuations and can have increased feelings of anxiety or sadness during hyperglycaemia (elevated blood sugar).
A study on sugar revealed that people who consume more sugar are prone to more incidences of depression. Elevated blood sugar harms blood vessels. They can damage the blood vessels and cause various vascular complications.
Long term diabetic patients show decreased learning capacity, memory issues, deficit in motor speed and various other cognitive functions. High level of sugar can also cause a greater degree of brain shrinkage.
The good news is brain is capable of forming and altering itself very rapidly. If we cut down on dietary sugar and exercise regularly, we can decrease sugar’s adverse impacts extensively. We can also eat supplement food that are rich in omega 3 fats to boost brain chemicals that can form new neurons more rapidly. The first step is the hardest but makes it easier along the way so start checking your sugar consumption and take positive steps into a healthy life.
