Recent studies on rats have revealed a real addiction to refined sugars, with alterations in the reward circuit similar to those displayed by drug addicts (we refer to addiction in the medical sense of the word, as defined in the mental disorders diagnosis handbook DSM-IV-TR). Even more surprising: among the animals supplied with a choice between drinking sugared water and…
The brain interacts directly with the taste receptors of the tongue. There are several types of receptors, each dedicated to a specific taste (salty, sweet, fatty, bitter, etc.). Those dedicated to the detection of sugary flavors, the Glut receptors, convey their data directly to the brain through the glossopharyngeal nerve, bypassing the metabolic pathways. Let us point out, on this…
Eating too much sugar might make your skin more wrinkled. Excess blood sugar promotes protein glycation, i.e. a chemical process that targets collagen and deteriorates it by crosslinking, thus promoting accelerated skin aging. Monitoring our sugar intake may therefore keep us younger-looking!
Cigarettes also contain hidden sugar that, when burnt, strengthens the tobacco addiction.
In most mammals, including humans, the perception and the appreciation of sweet taste (as opposed to other tastes: salty, bitter, spicy, etc.) is an innate capacity. It depends on receptors located on the tongue. The stimulation of these receptors by sweet-tasting foods or beverages generates a sensation that most of us find intensely pleasurable. Nothing wrong with that, except that…
White bread has a glycemic index (GI) almost as high as sugar’s – the whiter it is, the higher its GI. Instant noodles and instant rice also have a significantly higher GI than raw noodles or rice. Do bear these facts in mind when shopping for groceries…
While we all know that desserts, cakes and sweet carbonated drinks are very high in sugar, there also a few less obvious sources of hidden sugar: – Fat-free yogurt very often contains added fruit or flavorings. As a result, it may contain up to 20g of sugar (the equivalent of 5 teaspoons); – Readymade sauces also contain sugar (i.e. about 1…
According to the 2002 WHO guidelines, our daily sugar intake shouldn’t account for more than 10% of our daily calories. Now some scientists believe that reducing this threshold to 5% would be even healthier, while others argue that such a target would be very tough to meet and even more to sustain. Anyway, the present statistics show that we eat…
Sugar sometimes hides behind various names: sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, molasses, hydrolyzed starch, inverted sugar, corn syrup. So whenever you see any of these names on a label, it means that the food contains hidden sugar.