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2024-08-10 16:20:47
There are times when the body simply “craves something sweet.” It is a sensation that spreads from the stomach to the mouth and often does not go away until we attend to it. We can hardly ignore sweet cravings, but why does it sometimes become necessary to eat something sugary?
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Our palate is responsible for detecting the five basic flavors, the main one being sweet, which we experience from birth, through breast milk. This taste is conventionally accepted by all cultures and ethnicities around the globe as one of the most pleasurable flavors. Foods considered sweet are those that have a high content of simple carbohydrates.
What is sweet and why do we like it so much?
Sweets are included prominently in our diet because in controlled amounts they have considerable nutritional value, as carbohydrates are an important source of energy for our body. However, when we have the urge to eat sweets and this becomes more frequent and uncontrolled, excess sugar can have harmful effects on health, such as the development of diseases such as obesity, type two diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
But why does this uncontrollable need to eat something sweet arise? A good part of the reasons why these cravings arise is due to a chemical issue in our body, as well as a psychological one. Sweet and fatty foods create pleasure by activating the brain’s reward system. Two neurotransmitters are involved in this sensation: dopamine and serotonin. The latter also modulates both our mood and our feeling of well-being.
When we are in a low mood we want to eat sweets.
What are the reasons why we feel the need to eat something sweet?
At the same time, when we find ourselves in stressful or highly anxious situations, the desire for sweets can become unstoppable. Again, this taste has psychological effects, since when we experience tension in our body, a hormone called cortisol is released, which causes increases in blood pressure, glucose and heart rate.
In this way, cortisol increases blood sugar levels, which causes a need to consume more sugary and fatty foods. In turn, lack of sleep or poor rest can produce a constant feeling of hunger. The reason is due to the increase in the levels of the aforementioned cortisol and the decrease in leptin, a hormone that gives us the signal of satiety. When this happens, a sensation similar to hunger is generated in which our body requests food and energy, and one of the greatest contributions can be found in sugary foods.
Finally, a low or depressed mood can cause serotonin levels to be low, which leads to an increased craving for high-glucose foods, such as sweets.
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