How does sugar affect depression: does sweetness help fight it or only aggravate it?
Sweet lovers know that sweets, cakes and chocolates are good for bad moods, and can even alleviate depression.
But they will also confirm the fact that once you start eating stress and anxiety with your favorite treat, it becomes very difficult to do without it. Not getting the desired treat in time for such a person means at least feeling psychological and physical discomfort, or even reaching full-fledged depression or nervous exhaustion.
According to research , a link has been established between the consumption of sugar in sugary foods and drinks and an increased likelihood of developing mood disorders ( affective disorders ), including depression. There is a possibility that sugar even causes depression in healthy people.
Therefore, whether sweets are useful for mood is not an easy question, requiring an understanding of the complex biochemical processes occurring in the body. This is what we will try to figure out in this article.
Recall that we discussed earlier Top 10 Products to boost your mood , with proven effectiveness.
Content
Does sweetness help improve mood?
Eating sweets triggers a chain of transformations of some substances into others in the body. And each of them has its own effect on physiology and emotional state.
Most of the usual treats contain sugar or sucrose. In the digestive tract, sucrose is broken down into glucose and fructose.
Does the brain need glucose?
Glucose itself is the carbohydrate the body needs:
- It is fast gives a lot of energy ;
- Helps the brain work;
- Is necessary for the digestive, nervous and cardiovascular systems ;
- Protects the liver from toxins.
In many diseases, it is even specially prescribed to patients for intravenous injection into the blood.
But when sucrose is broken down and blood glucose levels rise, the hormone insulin is also produced, which dramatically lowers blood sugar levels. And after that, there is immediately a decline in energy and a feeling of frustration.
In addition sugar helps the production of the hormone dopamine : He is responsible for the state of pleasure.
The following paradox turns out: after enjoying confectionery, a person gets first:
- A surge of energy;
- A portion of the pleasure hormone dopamine.
As a result, he feels happy and well physically. Then comes a breakdown, irritability and fatigue , the dopamine content is disappearing, &8212; and the body craves a new portion of sweets to increase the concentration of dopamine and add energy. And so on indefinitely. The delicacy thus turns into a kind of drug. More detailed about the effect of sugar on the brain you can read it here.
Isn't it healthier to consume fructose?
For a long time there was a stereotype associated with the fact that if fructose is found mainly in unprocessed fruits and vegetables, then it is healthier than sugar, and it can be consumed without fear of harming health.
To some extent, this is true. But only in cases where fructose is consumed with fruits and vegetables. But if it acts as a sweetener and enters the body regularly and in large quantities, then the following happens.
Fructose exacerbates the brain's response to stressful situations. During stress, the hormone cortisol is produced. It helps to survive stress, but at the same time increases blood pressure and wears out many body systems.
And when fructose enters the gastrointestinal tract, all these reactions worsen, that is, the body is forced to mobilize against the slightest manifestation of stress more than it really needs to.
The use of fructose has a particularly strong effect on adolescents and children: they produce more cortisol than adults. Therefore, people who received oncological and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, infertility, stroke, Parkinson's disease and many other ailments in adulthood and adulthood were very likely to have a great sweet tooth in childhood.
What can replace sugar — 5 options
It turns out that sweets not only cannot be a full-fledged way to combat chronic stress and depression. With the systematic use of sweets, on the contrary, they provoke the development of depressive states. Especially if it concerns sugar-containing treats.
But glucose, which is useful for the nervous system and the body as a whole, can still be obtained if you do not use sugar, but natural and useful for the brain Foods:
- Slow carbs. If we are not talking about flavor substitution, but about replacing the glucose source, then the best option would be porridge, except semolina, whole grain bread, wild rice, vegetables and not too sweet fruits, such as beets, carrots, apples, etc.
- Sweet fruits. It is not forbidden to indulge in them, if you do it in moderation. Moreover, the composition of such sweet fruits as banana , orange, tangerine, plum, pineapple, yet, in addition to fructose and sucrose, there are a huge number of minerals, vitamins, organic acids, flavonoids, pectins, vital for humans. In addition, sweet fruits contain folic acid, the amino acid tryptophan and other substances that directly affect the emotional state. Therefore, sweet fruits consumed in moderation can really help to resist physical and emotional stress and prevent the onset of depression.
- Dried fruits. They contain useful substances in concentrated form, are pleasant to the taste and may well be a good sweet treat instead of sweets. And dried fruits such as dried apricots, raisins, prunes, figs, dates are also useful for the circulatory, digestive, cardiovascular and nervous systems.
- Honey. This natural delicacy is the best substitute for refined sugar, since honey primarily contains a large amount of sucrose and fructose. But it is for this reason that it should not be abused, although it is useful for the gastrointestinal tract, heart, and is actively used in apitherapy to improve blood health and treat atherosclerosis. More detailed about the effects of honey on the brain see in a separate article.
- Bitter chocolate. It contains the least amount of sugar compared to milk, but most importantly, that chocolate improves mood is much better than sugar due to the content of tryptophan, alkaloids, natural flavors and other substances affecting the emotional sphere.
Other important recommendations
Depression is a severe pathological condition that often requires strict medical treatment. But still, it is possible to prevent the development of the disease by using the entire arsenal of means to combat the depressed state of the psyche.
- Healthy nutrition for the brain . It implies a menu based on natural products: vegetables and fruits, cereals, greens, low-fat white meat, fermented dairy products, seafood, nuts, unrefined oils. Especially necessary in the diet is food rich in tryptophan and B vitamins, which help the production of hormones of joy and happiness and have a good effect on the nervous system: these are cheese and other dairy products, mushrooms, oily sea fish , cocoa beans, greens and leafy vegetables. All these products are called natural antidepressants. In case of a tendency to depression, it is also necessary to exclude from the diet red meat, white bread, sweets based on refined sugar, alcohol, &8212; everything that inhibits the production of the hormones of joy serotonin and endorphin.
- Full sleep. For enough serotonin, the body must produce the right amount of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Therefore, the better a person sleeps, the happier he is. And vice versa: the more serotonin in the brain cells, the less insomnia is threatened and the more complete the sleep.
- Any physical activity. The simplest physical actions contribute to the production of endorphins. It doesn't matter if we are talking about the gym, swimming, hiking or everyday household chores. Any movement and actions are good for fighting depression.
Interesting video
And now we invite you to familiarize yourself with the video:
Sugar is an illusory remedy for depression. It is possible to effectively influence a depressed mental state, but at the expense of completely different substances, of which there are many useful natural products. They have no less pleasant taste than refined sugar, but they really help to normalize mood, help to get out of stress and not get depressed.
