Sugar can be hard to escape from when we are trying to limit it within the diet because it's found in great number of different food products on the market today. Cookies, chips, cereals, pastas, sauces, dips, juices, dressings; sugar can be found in all of it. Some have even gone far enough to make the argument that sugar might be the culprit that is to blame for many of the health issues that people face in society today.
Research that was conducted in 2016 by researchers at Duke University, helped us further understand the hard-to-break addiction by analyzing how the addictive chemical (sugar) is able to rewire the brain, so as to change how the brain controls electrical signals. More specifically, it effects how we go about either pursuing a reward or trying to stop ourselves from pursuing it. Daily/habitual exposure to this chemical has shown for many years that it can bring about some negative/inconvenient side effects.
The researchers at Duke found that sugar-addicted mice in the study had demonstrated that they effectively lost their ability to exercise any personal braking capacity; in infringed upon their ability to try and regulate their own behavior.
In September of last year it was also uncovered that the sugar industry, via the Sugar Research Foundation, had funded at least 3 Harvard scientists in the 60s, to try and play down the worries surrounding the possible connection between sugar and heart disease. And to instead prompt worry in the direction of saturated fats instead.
There is a trend in the market to move away from sugar and to opt for alternatives (some a lot better than others), and we can see this with the rise of sweeteners/alt-sugar options that we now have. Two of the more popular options are: Xylitol and Erythritol, which are great alternatives that have sprung-up in the market in the past few years and they continue to gain support in the market as more people look for sugar alternatives.
Researchers believe that perhaps one day they might be able to target those specific neurological circuits in people's minds, that are associated with reinforcing cravings etc, so as to help them to kick their habits they'd like to be rid of.
Pics:
Pixabay
Sources:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2016/01/24/why-breaking-habits-is-even-harder-than-we-think/#210e0dd329cd
http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(15)01134-4
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/books/review/case-against-sugar-gary-taubes.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar-industry-shifted-blame-to-fat.html