Do you feel like your sweet tooth is inversely proportional to the amount of sugar you eat? In other words, if you eat less sugar, you have less of a sweet tooth, but if you eat more sugar, you crave more? If so, you\u2019re not alone\u2014that\u2019s something I hear a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While I respect the truth of each person\u2019s individual experiences, I also weigh those experiences against what is known from scientific evidence. Is one\u2019s reality based on one\u2019s perception, or on tangible physiological facts? Does science help explain their experience, or does it raise more questions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, a 2024 review in the British Journal of Nutrition reviewed recent human research examining whether exposure to sweet foods or drinks affects how much we like sweet tastes (\u201cour sweet tooth\u201d). It turns out that studies of adults and children either found no link between sugar intake and subsequent sweet cravings or got results that were equivocal at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The authors noted that other research has found that how much we like sweetness varies from person to person, and that sweet \u201clovers\u201d show an increase in liking when given increasingly sweet foods or drinks\u2014until they eventually reach a plateau. On the other hand, sweet \u201cdislikes\u201d show a growing aversion to increasingly sweet foods and drinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So when someone thinks that the more sugar they eat, the more they crave it, what else can happen? One possibility is a rebound from restrictive eating. Forbidden food tastes sweeter, and this includes sweet foods. If you\u2019ve been avoiding sugar and your control is cracking, you can quickly feel like having a little sugar leads to having a lot, and having a lot leads to having a lot more. It\u2019s less about the sugar, per se, and more about the psychological response to restriction and deprivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes, emotional eating is the explanation. If you rely on food \u2013 especially sweet foods \u2013 to cope with big emotions, you can feel like your sweet tooth is out of control when you really need help developing other ways of coping. Or maybe you just have a habit of reaching for sugary foods, maybe when you\u2019re having an afternoon energy slump or you\u2019re bored, and what used to taste special is now just \u201cnormal,\u201d so you need to up the ante.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, if you suspect you\u2019re objectively eating too much sugar, should you do a 180 and try to abstain? Not enough. In part, this may set the stage for that rehashed food I just talked about, but also because not all sugar sources are created equal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes (beans and lentils), milk and other dairy products all contain natural sugars<\/em> in different amounts, either in simpler forms (glucose, fructose, lactose) or as complex carbohydrates that our body breaks down into glucose. Natural sugars come as part of an intact, complete nutritional package of fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Added sugars<\/em> are a different story. Added sugars include white sugar as well as sucrose, dextrose, maltodextrin, juice concentrate, and high fructose corn syrup that food manufacturers add to processed foods. They are highly refined and add calories without nutrients. And while \u201chealthy\u201d alternatives like honey, maple syrup, agave syrup, molasses, coconut sugar, or rice syrup may contain small amounts of the nutrient, it\u2019s not enough to matter. In the end, all these sweeteners are refined and essentially the same, regardless of their original source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem isn\u2019t so much a teaspoon of sugar in your morning coffee or a freshly baked cookie. It\u2019s more about the presence of added sugars in highly processed foods\u2014even foods you probably wouldn\u2019t add sugar to if you were making them from scratch at home. For some people, sugar-sweetened beverages are a major contributor to overall sugar intake and a good place to start making changes. The low-hanging fruit, so to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One reason I don\u2019t recommend trying to eliminate added sugar is that it can lead to obsession and make it difficult to participate in social gatherings that involve food. Social isolation is not good for health. But if you want to cut back on added sugar, there are gentler ways to do it. One is to rely less on prepared, packaged foods or to choose versions with less added sugar. Another is to use naturally sweet foods to reduce added sugar. If you are a sweet \u201clover\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you tend to over-sweeten your morning coffee or tea\u2014or regularly order sweetened coffee drinks\u2014gradually reducing the amount of added sugar or syrups can allow your taste buds to adjust so that you\u2019re satisfied with more little. Again, a gentle approach. And if you suspect your sweet tooth may be related to a relapse cycle of restriction, emotional eating, or ingrained habits, focusing on that rather than the sugar itself may be the best place to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carrie Dennett: #giving #sugar #answer #sweet #tooth On Nutrition Do you feel like your sweet tooth is inversely proportional to the amount of sugar you eat? In other words, if you eat less sugar, you have less of a sweet tooth, but if you eat more sugar, you crave more? If so, you\u2019re not alone\u2014that\u2019s something I hear a lot. While I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition-diet"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devserver.pw\/twistkoala.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devserver.pw\/twistkoala.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devserver.pw\/twistkoala.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devserver.pw\/twistkoala.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devserver.pw\/twistkoala.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/devserver.pw\/twistkoala.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10844,"href":"https:\/\/devserver.pw\/twistkoala.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9986\/revisions\/10844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devserver.pw\/twistkoala.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devserver.pw\/twistkoala.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devserver.pw\/twistkoala.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devserver.pw\/twistkoala.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
CarrieOnNutrition@gmail.com; CarrieOnNutrition@gmail.com; on Instagram: @CarrieDennett. Carrie Dennett, MPH, RDN is a registered dietitian with Nutrition By Carrie and author of Healthy For Your Life: A Non-Diet Approach to Optimal Wellness. Visit her at nutritionbycarrie.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Image Source : www.seattletimes.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"