Food addictions can lead to obesity and complications, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Unfortunately, when people think about their health as it relates to food, they rarely think about sugar as being the core issue. They think about sugar as an addiction even less.
If you are concerned about yourself or a family member, and that sugar addiction may be a core cause of their health issues, our Functional Medicine Doctors at Functional Medicine Los Angeles count down some things to consider about what sugar addiction actually is.
- Brain versus Food
The first thing to know about sugar addiction, according to our Functional Medicine Burbank experts, is how the brain works on sugar. It truly becomes a battle of your brain versus food. Sugar can cause your brain to have a large release of dopamine.
Dopamine works with the regulators in your brain, and when large amounts are released, these regulators are dulled. This means that it takes more and more sugar to get the same feeling as the first time. So, whereas a small cupcake may have been enough for you, over time it will take two or more to get the same feeling.
- False Energy
Sugar can give you a sense of having energy as you would get from an energy shot or natural energy. The truth is that it is false energy.
Sugar gives your body a rush that allows it to get a small boost. When this boost is gone, you have what is known as a sugar crash. This crash can leave you feeling tired along with having a migraine or lightheadedness. This crash is hard to get over and, in some cases, can leave you with no alternative but to end your day and get some rest.
- Overstimulation
Sugar addiction causes an overstimulation of the system. It causes you to be more jumpy or anxious. This can, at first, be confused with just being excited or energetic. The problem, as emphasized by our Functional Medicine Studio City agency, is that you need to have more and more sugar to get that same reaction.
This ties directly to the release of dopamine and how your brain reacts to it. Your nerves, cells, and body system as a whole become used to sugar and begin to crave it. It makes your body feel as though the only way you can get that energy boost is through sugar. In this way, it is just like any other drug addiction, tricking your body into needing the chemical to keep going.
These are not all the signs and key points of sugar addiction. In Burbank Functional Medicine cases, however, these are the most common and most noticeable. They can also be easily reversed by lowering your sugar intake and monitoring your sugar levels throughout the day.
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