Zoë Palmer-Wright, a nutritionist at YorkTest, says by increasing the amount of sugar and sweeteners in foods and drinks, the food industry makes people crave these products, so they buy more of them.
“Regardless of whether you enjoy the taste of sugar a little bit or a lot, sweet foods affect everyone’s brains in the same way,” she explains.
Eating sweet foods produces a release of chemicals, including dopamine, which has an opiate-like effect.
“As the sugar content of foods has continued to soar over the past decade, people have become more and more hooked on altering their mood with these increasingly sweet foods,” she says.
While sugar and sweeteners can certainly improve the taste of our food and even give us a temporary hit of dopamine, their health risks are well documented. “If you eat a lot of sweet foods and your main meals are not nutritionally balanced either, you run the very real risk of developing blood sugar problems,” says Palmer-Wright.
In turn, this can lead to many chronic health issues down the road, such as diabetes and heart disease, as well as increasing your risk of obesity.
“In the short term, unstable blood sugar levels put you on a roller coaster ride where you swing between episodes of low blood sugar and high blood sugar,” Palmer-Wright adds. “This can destabilize your mood and hormones, cause brain fog, headaches, and a ravenous appetite.”
