Sugar: what happens to the brain when you stop eating it?

There are obvious health benefits to reducing your sugar intake, including reduced calories, which can help with weight loss and improved dental health.

But sometimes people say they experience negative side effects when trying to eat less sugar, including headaches, fatigue, or mood swings, which are usually temporary.

The cause of these side effects is not yet fully understood, but it is possible that these symptoms are related to how the brain reacts when exposed to sugary foods, and what is called the biology of the reward “.

Carbohydrates come in many forms, including sugars, which are found naturally in many foods, such as fructose in fruit and lactose in milk. Table sugar – known as sucrose – is found in sugar cane, sugar beets, and maple syrup, while glucose and fructose are the main components of honey.

As mass production of food becomes the norm, sucrose and other sugars are added to food to make it more palatable. In addition to improving the taste of food, sugar has profound biological effects on the brain. These effects are so significant that they have led to a debate about whether you can be “addicted” to sugar – although this is still under investigation.

Sucrose activates the sweet taste receptors in the mouth, which ultimately leads to the release of a chemical called dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, which means it’s a chemical that transmits messages between nerves in the brain. And when we’re exposed to a rewarding stimulus, the brain responds by releasing dopamine, which is why it’s often called the “reward” chemical.

The gratifying effects of dopamine are widely seen in the part of the brain responsible for pleasure and reward. Our behavior is governed by reward, which means that we are made to repeat dopamine-inducing behaviors. And dopamine can make us look for food, like junk food.

Animal and human experiments have shown that sugar plays an important role in activating these reward pathways, with intense sugars even selling better than cocaine in terms of the intrinsic reward they elicit.

Sugar is also able to activate reward pathways in the brain, whether by tasting it in the mouth or injecting it into the bloodstream, according to some studies in mice. This means that the effect of sugar is independent of the sweet taste.

In mice, strong evidence suggests that consumption of sucrose can alter dopamine-activated structures in the brain, as well as emotional processing and behavior in animals and humans.

Obviously, sugar can have a powerful effect on us. It is therefore normal to see negative effects when we eat less sugar or eliminate it completely from our diet.

During this first stage of “sugar withdrawal”, certain mental and physical symptoms develop, including depression, anxiety and brain fog, as well as headaches, fatigue and dizziness.

This means that giving up sugar can be overwhelming, both mentally and physically, which can make it difficult for some people to stick to a diet change.

While the idea of ​​”sugar addiction” may be controversial, evidence from experiments with mice has shown that sugar causes some of the symptoms that other addictive substances cause.

Other animal research has shown that the effects of sugar addiction, withdrawal, and relapses are similar to those of drugs.

But most of the research in this area revolves around animals, so it’s currently difficult to determine if the same is true for humans.

The reward pathways in the human brain have remained unchanged due to evolution – and it is likely that many other organisms have similar reward pathways in their brains. This means that the biological effects of sugar withdrawal seen in animals are likely, to some extent, to also occur in humans, as our brains have similar reward pathways.

It is likely that a change in the chemical balance of the brain is the cause of the symptoms that people complain about when they stop eating sugar or reduce the amount of sugar in their diet.

Dopamine also regulates hormonal control, nausea, vomiting, and anxiety. And when sugar is removed from the diet, the rapidly declining effects of dopamine in the brain can interfere with the normal functioning of many different brain pathways, which is why people report these symptoms.

So, if you want to cut down on the sugar in your diet for the long term, being able to get through the tough first few weeks is very important.

It is also important to realize that sugar is not per se “bad”, but should be consumed in moderation, with healthy eating and exercise.