Ever wondered how you feel more hungry after eating sugary delights and have intense cravings for food shortly thereafter? Cookies, biscuits, sweeties, brownies, doughnuts, pastries, etc., with high sugar content can make for quick grab-and-go to quell acute hunger pangs, but surprisingly, these treats are the major reason behind your insatiable appetite and inability to shed weight. In fact, studies have shown that a sugar-dominant breakfast (bread and jam for example) promotes a stronger sensation of hunger and increased calorie consumption through the day! Want to know how sugary stuff makes you hungrier even though you are getting a lot of calories through such food? Here’s how:
Jam, muffins, biscuits, cookies, bread, cakes have one ingredient in common – sugar, and that’s the stuff that makes everything appetizing. However, when you eat something with a high sugar content, blood sugar level shoots up, which in turn elicits a sharp insulin response. Once excess insulin is pumped out to balance glucose level, this hormone causes a sharp dip in blood glucose, which the brain detects as an energy crunch, sending out hunger signals in order to replenish blood glucose. Studies done have also shown that sharp rise in insulin leads to increased hunger, heightened cravings for sweet taste, and subsequent increase in food intake. Thus the connection between insulin and appetite is quite strong since sharp spike in insulin creates an energy crunch, which pushes the body to crave for more food to replenish energy and balance out blood sugar to normal levels. Also read: “10 Ways Food Companies are Hiding Sugar in your Food.”
Additionally, regular consumption of sugar suppresses the level of appetite-suppressing hormone “leptin” and increase the levels of hunger hormone “ghrelin.” Sugar also increases your cravings for calorie-dense food and you would always be in a state of hunger, needing more food to satisfy those cravings, adding more calories and fat to the body in the process.
According to experts, regular consumption of sugary delights can lead to sugar addiction. When sugar enters the body, it activates an area of the brain called “mesolimbic dopamine system” which is also known as the “reward center,” releasing feel-good neurotransmitters like opioids and dopamine, that in turn cause a sense of pleasure, motivating us to reach out for sugar to reclaim the feeling of pleasure. Experts say people seek sugar-rich food to trigger the reward center of the brain, even in the absence of any real hunger.
Sugar is highly addictive and it’s not easy to get off sugar, but it’s important to cut back on refined sugar because it raises inflammation in the body and pre-disposes one to heart disease, diabetes, and other life-threatening diseases. The link between sugar and weight gain goes like this – body breaks down sugar into glucose and excess glucose gets converted to fat and gets stored, mostly around the belly area. By cutting down sugar, you would be able to shed weight really well and get your dream body and goal weight quickly. A lot of women complain how difficult it is to get rid of belly fat, even with diet and exercise, but, let us tell you, belly fat will melt away only if you cut down on sugar! Also read: “15 Ways to Satisfy your Sweet Tooth without Refined Sugar.”
So, now that it’s clear that sugar makes it extremely difficult to lose weight, cut down on sugar intake and start on a good weight loss diet like Rati Beauty to shed excess pounds and lose inches as well. Download the Rati Beauty app for more details.
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