The Psychology Behind a Sweet Tooth
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 4 Minutes & 37 Seconds
Behind every ravenous sweet tooth is a scientific and psychological reason as to why your body may be craving sugar and just how you can combat it.
In 2012, Cristin Couzens publicized secret documents about the sugar industry called Big Sugar's Sweet Little Lies. This was a significant major story, partly due to the confirmation that American's sugar craving problem was more than about self-control.
If you find yourself craving sugar throughout the day, you're not alone. There are biological reasons why we, as humans, want sugar. Yes, it tastes good, but there's more to this story.
Let's explore more of the 'why' you have a sweet tooth and how to remedy it.
Why Your Brain is Craving Sugar
When your body is deficient in certain types of nutrients, it translates into a craving. This is true for salt, sugar, and fat, as well as micronutrients, like calcium, zinc, chromium, and magnesium. You may not know you are deficient in these nutrients, but your brain keeps tabs.
Mineral Deficiencies
Vitamins and minerals control so many bodily functions. If you eat a well-balanced diet and a variety of foods, you'll rarely notice a deficiency. The problem is that some of us get into the habit of eating the same things every day.
You might get plenty of proteins, fats, and carbs from your favourite foods, but that's not enough. For example, if all of your protein comes from plant-based sources, you can develop an iron deficiency. Iron is responsible for red blood cell health and metastasizing energy.
Low energy results in intense sugar cravings as your body screams for a quick fix to deliver much-needed energy.
The reason why the above-mentioned calcium, zinc, chromium, and magnesium cause sugar cravings are due to their roles in hydration. A deficiency in any of these can create feelings of dehydration. In fact, water and sugar cravings are closely related; chronic thirst is an indicator of diabetes.
Memories
Cravings can occur in the hippocampus, which also handles your ability to create memories. The hippocampus is great at logging strong memories of foods that reward you with carbs/energy when you're low. Unfortunately, this can also translate into bad habits of snacking and eating sweets when you don't need them.
Besides the hippocampus, the insula of each hemisphere of the brain also influences cravings. This is where basic emotions like fear, anger, happiness, and sadness reside. Because these are more primal emotions, these thoughts trigger the release of dopamine and are harder to resist.
The Problem with Dieting
Your brain can work against you off of memories of cravings, nutrient deficiencies, and emotional connections. When you throw dieting into the mix, you run into another set of challenges. Diets are about eliminating foods that you either don't need or eat too much of.
Vegan diets, in particular, are tough due to switching away from readily-available animal proteins/fats. There are plenty of plant options that contain enough protein to survive. The problem is you may have to track your protein and fat intake every day.
If you don't eat enough protein or fat, your blood sugar levels will bounce up and down. Protein and fat help moderate the body's rate of metabolism of sugars. If you burn through those sugars too fast, you'll crave them all day.
This is especially true in a low or no-carb diet. The first few weeks after switching, your body is thrown through a loop. Without those simple sugars to provide quick energy, you'll likely feel ‘off,’ lethargic, and have endless cravings for sugar.
Eventually, your body will adjust how it metabolizes energy, as long as you don't give in to the cravings. If you're thinking about using artificial sweeteners to "trick" your brain: don't. These sweeteners work the same way soda does on the brain.
You'll keep the cravings of sugar, but you'll never feel satisfied because of how quickly it metabolizes.
Sweet Dreams
Sleeping habits dictate all aspects of your health. Poor sleep not only messes with your metabolism, but it also handicaps your cerebrum. This increases food cravings because the cerebrum is what allows you to practice self-control.
You will wake up craving junk food, sugary breakfasts, and fall into a cyclical trap. One night of bad sleep throws off hormonal balance, too. Ghrelin and leptin are two essential hormones that help suppress your appetite.
Psychologically, it becomes difficult to resist sugar cravings. You may see it as a lack of willpower, but chemically, you're at a disadvantage.
Mental Ramifications
Outside of diet and exercise, your mental health also plays an active role in your blood sugar levels. High amounts of stress will influence cortisol levels, which can increase both glucose and insulin. This is partly why stressed people often crave, then overeat sugar.
Depression works a little differently, but it also impacts sugar and appetite cravings. Depression usually reflects low levels of serotonin, which sugar helps release when eaten. Eating sugary foods keeps serotonin levels ping-ponging up and down, creating a never-ending cycle of mood instability and binge eating.
If this sounds like you and you’d like to enlist my help, as an Amen Clinic Certified Brain Health Coach and neuronutritionist, I can help you work on the psychological drivers behind your sweet tooth. By balancing blood sugar levels and teaching you how to make the best food choices for your brain type, you will experience more stable moods and less depressive episodes with fewer cravings.
Breaking the Habit
It's not a sin to crave sweets.
The problem with sugar is that it's all around us. As the dentist's sugar industry expose revealed, companies use sugar to hook us and create dependency. You're not weak because you can't quit sugar - you're human.
At HappiHuman, we create solutions for these difficult biological and psychological problems. Rather than shaming and punishing yourself for eating sugar, break the cycle with a new healthy habit.
Strict diets often fail because they are abrupt and often lack a reliable support system.
We're here to help you kick sugar to the curb with our sugar detox program. It's a system that works to replace your sugar cravings with something better. It will change how you think about sugar and address all of these factors that contribute to sugar cravings.
Start your sugar detox today. No gimmicks and no expensive supplements. We give you the tools and motivation. You are in the driver's seat!
As always, I welcome your thoughts and value your feedback. Let me know what you think by dropping me a line or commenting below.
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