This is a short explanation of why our bodies go thru sugar highs and sugar lows when we indulge in sweet foods. It is the main reason many us end up craving sugar and usually overeating. What I mean by a sugar high (or rush) is that sense of euphoria and high energy that occurs after you’ve eaten something sweet. A sugar low (or crash), on the other hand, reduces your energy level to the point that you will be sleepy, irritable, and often intensely hungry. These sugar highs and lows may possibly not be something you distinctly notice, but once you think about it, it may be a part of your lifestyle. An example would be picking up a candy bar at a grocery store on the way home from work since you’re tired and need some vitality.
I do not eat candy bars very often. I have other sources of sweets that I have trouble staying away from! When I do eat a candy bar, though, in most cases I’m literally shaking with hunger in about 2 hours. If we consume too many sugary foods, we may possibly suffer from a series of these highs and lows – first the high and then the low around 2 hours later. Unfortunately the low causes us to seek out some glucose once again and the cycle repeats. In order to stop sugar cravings, we need to understand this cycle.
Let’s first go over how our bodies consume sugar (or carbohydrates). Soon after it is digested, sugar enters the blood as glucose (often called blood sugar) and from there, it’s absorbed and removed from the blood, either to be burned by the cells in the body to deliver energy or stored as fat, which can be later used to provide energy. The pancreas regulates the rate at which blood sugar (glucose) is absorbed and therefore the quantity of blood sugar in the bloodstream. To do this, the pancreas injects a hormone known as insulin into the bloodstream. The insulin acts as a trigger mechanism for the cells in the body. Higher levels of it in the blood stream cause more blood sugar to be absorbed – lower levels cause less blood sugar absorption. In between meals, the pancreas injects a nominal quantity of insulin to give you the vitality you have to have through the day. As you eat food, it will detect additional blood sugar in the bloodstream and inject additional insulin to either burn it or store it as fat to keep the blood sugar at a consistent level. This can be a significant mechanism in fact, simply because the existence of abnormally high or low blood sugar levels is extremely dangerous.
To explain why we go through sugar highs and lows, we have to go backward in our history a few thousand years and think about what we were munching on in those days. Well, sorry to say – it was very boring, fibrous, raw stuff. Whatever we ate took a long time to digest, so the sugary stuff that we run across each day now just wasn’t readily available. Our complete process of consuming blood sugar now is based on those times in the past and really hasn’t changed much. So, the speed with which the pancreas adjusts the insulin to either increase or decrease blood sugar was matched to the quite slow speed at which food was digested in those days. For our day and age, when we eat some thing very sugary, this just isn’t fast enough as explained within the following example.
1) I eat an entire Snickers candy bar. Darn it – I deserved it!
2) My pancreas, taking its time, doesn’t recognize till too late, that my blood sugar level is substantial. It reacts however and releases a large quantity of insulin to get that blood sugar level back down.
3) The insulin does its thing and triggers my body to absorb the blood sugar, either as energy or fat. So I am in a Sugar High. I’m genuinely feeling great – but I’m also a little fatter!
4) The insulin is still triggering the absorption of blood sugar and, regrettably removes nearly all of it. This level is now much too low. Usually, the pancreas adjusts the insulin level to keep a moderate level of blood sugar in the blood stream, along with a moderate level of insulin, to steadily absorb the blood sugar for energy.
5) Now I’m in a sugar low. I’m shaking, hungry, and exhausted. I am craving sugar and truly need anything to eat.
6) The pancreas, nevertheless taking its time, realizes there’s no blood sugar in the blood stream and finally, but way too late, ceases pumping out insulin.
7) In most cases, I find something to eat. If it is sugary I start back at step 1) once more.
So, that’s it in a nutshell – the vicious little cycle that will continue to keep you moving from one sweet treat to another until you discover a tactic to get out of the rut – to stop craving sugar.
