Neuronarrative

Musings on the complicated business of thinking

by David DiSalvo
The key word in all of the stats is "added." While a healthy diet would
contain a significant amount of naturally occurring sugar (in fruits and
grains, for example), the problem is that we're chronically consuming much
more added sugar in processed foods, generally in the rapidly absorbed
form of fructose.
That's an important clarification because our brains need sugar every day
to function. Brain cells require two times the energy needed by all the other
cells in the body; roughly 10% of our total daily energy requirements. This
energy is derived from glucose (blood sugar), the gasoline of our brains.
Sugar is not the brain's enemyadded sugar is.
Research indicates that a diet high in added sugar reduces the production
of a brain chemical known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).
Without BDNF, our brains can't form new memories and we can't learn (or
remember) much of anything. Levels of BDNF are particularly low in people
with an impaired glucose metabolismdiabetics and pre-diabeticsand as
the amount of BDNF decreases, sugar metabolism worsens.
In other words, chronically eating added sugar reduces BDNF, and then the
lowered levels of the brain chemical begin contributing to insulin
resistance, which leads to type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, which
eventually leads to a host of other health problems. Once that happens,
your brain and body are in a destructive cycle that's difficult if not
impossible to reverse.
Research has also linked low BDNF levels to depression and dementia. It's
possible that low BDNF may turn out to be the smoking gun in these and
What Eating Too Much Sugar Does to Your Brain
The damage added sugar does to our bodies begins in our brains.
Published on April 27, 2012 by David DiSalvo in Neuronarrative
Overeating, poor memory formation, learning disorders,
depressionall have been linked in recent research to the
over-consumption of sugar. And these linkages point to a
problem that is only beginning to be better understood: what our
chronic intake of added sugar is doing to our brains.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the
average American consumes 156 pounds of added sugar per
year. That's five grocery store shelves loaded with 30 or so one
pound bags of sugar each. If you find that hard to believe, that's probably because sugar is so
ubiquitous in our diets that most of us have no idea how much we're consuming. The Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) puts the amount at 27.5 teaspoons of sugar a day per capita, which translates
to 440 caloriesnearly one quarter of a typical 2000 calorie a day diet.
David DiSalvo is a science and
technology writer working at the
intersection of cognition and culture.
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What Eating Too Much Sugar Does to Your Brain | Psychology Today http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/neuronarrative/201204/what-eatin...
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other diseases, like Alzheimer's, that tend to appear in clusters in
epidemiological studies. More research is being conducted on this subject,
but what seems clear in any case is that a reduced level of BDNF is bad
news for our brains, and chronic sugar consumption is one of the worst
inhibitory culprits.
Other studies have focused on sugars role in over-eating. We intuitively
know that sugar and obesity are linked (since sugar is full of calories), but
the exact reason why eating sugar-laden foods seems to make us want to
eat more hasnt been well understood until recently.
New research has shown that chronic consumption of added sugar dulls
the brains mechanism for telling you to stop eating. It does so by reducing
activity in the brains anorexigenic oxytocin system, which is responsible
for throwing up the red full flag that prevents you from gorging. When
oxytocin cells in the brain are blunted by over-consumption of sugar, the
flag doesnt work correctly and you start asking for seconds and thirds, and
seeking out snacks at midnight.
What these and other studies strongly suggest is that most of us are
seriously damaging ourselves with processed foods high in added sugar,
and the damage begins with our brains. Seen in this light, chronic
added-sugar consumption is no less a problem than smoking or alcoholism.
And the hard truth is that we may have only begun to see the effects of
what the endless sugar avalanche is doing to us.
For more on this topic, click here to watch an excellent piece from 60
Minutes: "Is Sugar Toxic?"

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What Eating Too Much Sugar Does to Your Brain | Psychology Today http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/neuronarrative/201204/what-eatin...
2 of 3 26/04/2014 04:57
What Eating Too Much Sugar Does to Your Brain | Psychology Today http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/neuronarrative/201204/what-eatin...
3 of 3 26/04/2014 04:57