So often I see commercials of people enjoying sweet sugary treats. An ad for sugar depicts a young girl with frosting on her finger, her eyes practically rolling back into her head. Another ad for ice cream depicts a woman escaping chaos in the background as she closes her eyes and sighs.
Is Sugar A Drug?
Is Sugar a Drug? Sure, sugar may be classified as a food, but many feel it should be classified as a drug, and others feel it should be classified as a toxin. I agree with this perspective. When you feel the sensation of sugar traveling up your spine to tickle you brain, it certainly feels like a drug.
While sugar releases euphoric endorphins and another feel good chemicals in the brain that are responsible for that “rush” you feel after indulging in something sweet, unfortunately it follows the same pathways in the brain as habit forming drugs.
What Sugar Really Does
In the 1950s, British researcher John Yudkin published persuasive findings that excessive use of sugar was associated with the following conditions:
Increase in blood cholesterol
Rise in triglycerides
Increase of adhesiveness in blood platelets
Increase in blood insulin
Increase in blood corticosteroid
Increase in gastric (stomach) acidity
Shrinkage of the pancreas
Enlargement of the liver and adrenal glands
Sugar consumption has also been associated with hyperactivity, behavior problems, lack of concentration, and violent tendencies. That’s not surprising, considering how we feel when our blood sugar levels drop and we are forced to go without it.
Sugar’s connection to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is perhaps the most well known connection between sugar and cognitive performance, yet ADHD’s connection to sugar is often minimized.This explains why when No Sugar Challengers get off of sugar mental clarity returns in abundance.
Not So Glamorous After All
Glamorizing sugar can be very dangerous. Insinuating people use it to escape life is even more dangerous. Sure I get the lure of sugar, I have indulged before and know exactly how it can make all my problems go away… for an instant. But temporary relief is very costly.
I for one don’t bemoan the loss of sugar in my diet. That’s like saying… Awe an early death, I miss you!