Healthshifter has noticed that many highly interested health and wellness biohackers are wearing Continuous Glucose Monitors(CGM). Like other wearables, the CGM provides personalized information about your own body. Everywhere we look we see people flashing their “Levels” CGM which tracks blood glucose in real time in order to maximize one’s diet and exercise. We all love sugar and many of us find it addictive. Actually, sugar is highly addictive-it is right up there with heroin and cocaine in so far as our brains are concerned. But why do we crave sugar in particular and why do we find it so challenging to elliminate from our diets? A recent article from the Levels team provides some insight and answers to these questions. See, “Why do We Crave Sweets and How Can We Stop,” by Mike Haney https://www.levelshealth.com/blog/why-do-we-crave-sweets-and-how-can-we-stop? The author analyzed 3 different studies: the relationship between sugar and hunger, the brain and sugar, and carbohydrates and cravings. The studies provide some insight into why we crave sugar.
In the first study, individuals wore CGMs for two weeks and were told to eat a regualr diet and standardized breakfast. Researchers wanted to see how the food eaten and people’s glucose response to those meals affected their hunger two to three hours later. They looked at “glucose dips( think sugar crash)”— or when a person’s blood sugar fell below the level it was at when they ate the meal. They found that the dips in blood sugar predicted hunger. The study revealed that the bigger the spike in blood sugar, the bigger the dip and… the hungrier a person became later. Additionally, the study found that later on, the person would consume more food. Levels, of course, advises that we keep our glucose more stable throughout the day to avoid those spikes and dips. They only lead to hunger and more eating!
The second study looked at our brains and sugar. Parts of our brain are committed to finding and eating sugar. So even if something tastes sweet on your tongue-like artificial sweetners, monk fruit, stevia or actual fruit the brain still will look for and crave actual sugar. The gut-brain axis and the digestive system will keep us craving actual sugar even when we try to fool it with artificial sweetners, fruit etc. Our brains make it so hard to eliminate sugar from our diet!
The third study looked at reducing carbohydrates in order to reduce cravings and hunger. In this study, participants reduced their carbs, sugar and fast fatty foods for 4 weeks. It found that both cravings and hunger decreased as long as the period of elliminating these foods was for a longer period of time such as the 4 week period in the study. The “Researchers found reduced cravings in all categories and overall craving and hunger. They also saw an increase in “dietary restraint,” essentially your ability to exert control over what you eat. Importantly, people who had the most significant drop in blood sugar levels also had the most considerable reduction in sweet craving. The researchers don’t provide a causal direction but suggest reducing overall carbohydrate intake influenced both glucose levels and cravings.”
These studies shed insight into why we crave sweets and what we can do to reduce and even elliminate the craving and sweets! For a further read, take a look at Levels blog post at:
Leave a Reply