Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? You cant hide…I know it was you.  I’ll cut you some slack though, it’s addicting… no really, scientifically sugar is addicting.

New research showed the addictive properties of sugar in mice eating patterns. Let me be clear, I’m not about to excuse an outrageous sugar habit. But let’s talk about the relationship your brain has with sugar.

Say you decide to eat a piece of chocolate after lunch. Yum! Your brain likes that, you feel satisfied, and you continue to work productively. Tomorrow, you do the same thing. The day after, same. Then, one day, you feel a drop in your energy, you are stressed out and you need some of that feel good… where are you going to find it? The candy dish of course. But why?

When we eat sugar, our brains release dopamine, the ‘feel good’ chemical. Consciously or not, when you reached for the candy dish, your body was responding to a craving for that ‘feel good’ chemical.  If you don’t eat the sugar, your brain will recognize that none of the feel good chemical is being released and you’ll crave the sweet for some dopamine release.

What to do when the craving hits? Eat sugar, duh! BUT, eat it in small amounts and get it from a variety of sources. Your body is pretty bad at distinguishing the sugar of an orange from that of a candy bar. So why eat the orange? Well, besides that it has 0 grams of fat, is full of vitamin C, folate, and fiber, the natural sugar in it will trigger the dopamine release.

Hello feel good.