Are you addicted to sugar?

Let’s face it. Sugar tastes good. It is the equivalent of a warm hug on a cold winter morning for our taste buds. A cup of sweet strong coffee or tea on a Monday morning helps you take on the week by its horns. In the evening, it helps you unwind from the tiring day. A sweet dessert is just the right finishing touch for a delicious meal or helps you recover from a disappointing meal. Who doesn’t remember squabbling over the last piece of chocolate or candy with their siblings in their childhood? Or delving into a carton of ice-cream while nursing a broken heart? Or binging on chocolates during those stressful exams? There’s sugar in my pot and all is right with the world! Sugar free tablets makes everything seem better, or only pure sugar is better right.?

But like everything else, too much of a good thing can become bad too. Sugar can turn out to be really bad in the long run. Here’s why: Sugar is not what our bodies have evolved to handle. Our body can process the sugars that occur naturally in foods like honey, apples, watermelons and so on. But the modern day table sugar is man-made and not what our bodies have evolved to process over the centuries. As a result, our body becomes dependent on sugar when it is consumed regularly. When consumed in small quantities and combined with a healthy food habit, exercise regime and an active lifestyle, it isn’t a problem. However, when we use too much sugar, we become dependent upon it, becoming a dangerous habit. According to Dr. Mark Hyman, sugar is eight times as addictive as cocaine.  It is interesting to note that while heroin and cocaine activate only the brain’s pleasure spot, sugar activates and lights up the whole brain like a pinball machine. This creates a strong dependency that is tough to break, resulting in serious health problems in the long run.