Fighting Your Sweet Foods Cravings
Posted by Tanega Dental. on Mar 17 2022, 02:06 AM
Humans are hardwired to crave sweet foods. Sweet tastes encourage us to eat them more. Studies on animals show that food that tastes sweet signals that it is safe to consume. Have you ever thought about why you crave so much sweet food and what it does to your brain? Let's talk about dopamine.
What is Dopamine?
Dopamine is a chemical in the brain that allows nerve cells to communicate. It's a vital chemical our body produces to encourage life-sustaining behaviors. Dopamine is also important in other things in body movement:
- Reduced dopamine production is a feature of Parkinson's disease and can be treated using synthetic dopamine-like drugs.
- Excess dopamine can result in the brain signaling unnecessary movements causing tics.
- It’s also involved in pleasure-seeking behavior.
Causes of Sugar Craving
Dopamine and food are strongly linked. When we eat sweet food, the brain produces a huge amount of dopamine. Over time our body gets used to these high levels of dopamine. When we aren't eating sweet foods, we start to crave them more. In many ways, sweet cravings are similar to drug addiction, but it's more common.
Here are some of the common causes of sugar craving:
- Dehydration. When consumption of water is low, that situation may be mistaken for sugar cravings or hunger.
- Stress. Many people have sweets or we can say that they crave sweets when they are severely stressed physically or emotionally.
- Overconsumption of healthy carbohydrates. This can lead to sugar cravings where our body converts them into glucose. Even though you take enough food to satisfy your cravings, your body reacts as if it's not enough.
- Lack of beneficial bacteria. This leads to the overgrowth of yeast inside the intestine whose life depends on sugar. So when you eat more sweet food, the growth of yeast increases and it's like you rent your intestine out for yeast to party.
How To Fight Against These Causes
- Have lots of water when you dehydrate and try not to go for sweet food.
- When you are stressed, try to find the reason for your stress and have fruits when you crave sweets.
- Limit carbohydrates by adding protein and fats to your food.
- Try not to feed the bad bacteria. Instead, have fermented foods that support the beneficial bacteria.
Tanega Dental provides dental care for the entire family. Visit Tanega Dental at 124 Hazelwood Dr, South San Francisco, CA 94080, get in touch with Dentist in San Francisco CA at (650) 794-0203, or book online for our services. 
