How Sugar Makes Life Less Enjoyable
Our ancestors foraged for berries in a scarce food environment, motivated by survival, storing up energy to protect against starvation during winter and famine. Dopamine was released in reasonable amounts when they found any of the life-sustaining goodness.
Today, we have the same brains as our ancestors, but our food environment is vastly different. Our brain still seeks out sugar for energy and still has the same subconscious fear of starvation, but there is no famine on the horizon.
Our “berry bushes” are now drive-thrus and DoorDash. Instead of picking fruit in season like our ancestors did, we pick junk food off every shelf at every store. Instead of grazing on berries during a short window while they are ripe; we graze on highly palatable, manufactured “bliss point” foods year round.
The famine our brain is trying to protect us from never comes, and we never experience the scarcity that our body is preparing to expend all its energy on, so we get fatter and sicker every year.
Food companies capitalize on our brain’s innate drive to survive. Those gooey, flaky, crunchy, smooth, puffy, bubbly (and whatever else) concoctions that we crave were carefully designed in a lab to be as addictive as possible so we can’t live without them. This “food” was created by scientists who work hard to find the perfect “bliss-point” for palatability and pleasure.
The relatively small reward that our ancestor’s brains experienced when they bit into an ancient piece of fruit has been replaced with a massive reward when we eat these lab created concoctions. Our brain was not designed to withstand this magnitude of stimuli and the results are devastating. When we consume these foods excessively and on a regular basis our brain chemistry dramatically changes.
These changes in the brain occur through a process called “down-regulation.” Down-regulation is when our dopamine receptors thin out so the next time we assault our brain with such a huge amount of stimuli (think a coke and a bag of Cheetos,) our dopamine response will be more appropriate.
On the surface this sounds great, doesn’t it? My brain can just adjust to the huge amount of sugar I’m eating. Now, let down-regulation do it’s thing and let me drink this milkshake in peace!
The problem is, with less dopamine receptors, now I need even more sugar to get the same feeling as before. So, that milkshake I’m downing right now might satisfy my cravings for the moment, but it also ensures that I will need another one tomorrow. And now, thanks to my increasing tolerance, it will take more than just one milkshake to relieve my sugar craving. Because of my increased tolerance, unless I get an even larger hit of sugar I will feel discontent and in a state of craving. Once I get that larger hit of sugar the cycle repeats, requiring even more sugar to get the same level of relief. And the cycle continues, getting worse and worse with time. Addiction is progressive.
I recently watched an old 60-Minutes interview with Eric Clapton. He endured decades of alcohol and drug addiction and he talked about how grateful he is to have escaped alive. In the interview he said something very surprising about sugar:
Imagine this conversation in Eric Clapton’s British accent.
Eric Clapton: “I was an egomaniac with an inferiority complex… So I like the attention, and I don’t like the attention.”
Narrator: “The more attention and the more success, the more he retreated into the world of drugs and alcohol.”
Eric Clapton: “I couldn’t get through a day without doing something to alter my consciousness.”
Interviewer: “And it started with heroin, the addiction?”
Eric Clapton: “No, it started with sugar.”
Interviewer: “Sugar?”
Eric Clapton: “Oh yeah, When I was five… six years old I was cramming sugar down my throat, as fast as I could get it down. Sweets, sugar on bread and butter. I became addicted to sugar to change the way I felt.”
Narrator: “And as the years passed, Clapton would do more and more to change the way he felt…”
Excessive sugar consumption changed Eric Clapton’s brain chemistry, leading to tolerance and addiction, and even increased susceptibility to drugs and alcohol.
Let me give you an example of down-regulation in my own life. A few years ago we spent some time in Australia for my husband’s job. It was an incredible adventure. I homeschooled our children and the entire city was our classroom. We discovered (very quickly) that the food there, especially sweets, was amazing. I ate way more sugar than I ever had before, telling myself that I was across the world from our home, and I deserved a little treat.
My “little treat” turned into a treat on every corner several times a day. It was like a four month “food tour.” Little did I know I was creating tolerance and addiction by consuming excessive amounts of sugar.
Several times during our time in Australia I tried to get “back on track” and I failed miserably. Every morning I would commit to not eating sugar that day, but by the afternoon I was sneaking a brownie from our favorite library cafe or getting a gelato with the kids. As soon as I had that something sweet, my next thought would be, “Well, I messed up. Might as well enjoy it and just start tomorrow!” And I would sneakily eat sugar the rest of the day.
On our way home from Australia we stopped in Hawaii for a family vacation. This is when I realized I was helplessly addicted to sugar. Here I was in Hawaii, with my gorgeous husband and children. The scent of floral air wafting around me, the sun melting into the ocean, the sand between my toes, little hands in mine. I should have felt nothing but bliss.
But all I felt was craving. My brain was screaming for more of what could bring me up to baseline again, and what I had been giving it for the last few months to a year: sugar and synthetic, fake chemicals. I now needed over-the-top stimuli because my dopamine receptors were too few and far between to detect pleasure from anything less.
Melting sunsets and sand between my toes wasn’t going to cut it. I wanted chocolate, I wanted a lot of it, and I wanted it all to myself. I found myself sneaking to the gift shop to get chocolate like a true drug addict. I didn’t want to be eating chocolate away from my family. I wanted to be present and enjoying LIFE, not being held hostage by a substance. Sugar was stealing my moments, my joy, my life. I was in bondage.
Now, fast forward to a random evening recently in the quiet city where we live. Walking with my family on our pedestrian mall, downtown. The sound of my children’s laughter all around me, the feeling of my husband’s hand in mine, the cool breeze on my face, the crispness of Fall in the air.
Instead of craving, I felt content. There was no need or itchiness, No desire for a substance my brain was lacking. On this simple, uneventful evening with my family, my pleasure response was robust and healthy. Nothing special was going on, we certainly weren’t in Hawaii! But I was able to appreciate the beauty and joy around me because my healthy thriving brain was free from the badgering effects of addiction. My dopamine receptors had healed and my brain reacted appropriately to the beauty of life around me.
This is what God wants for us. He wants us to be awake and present in our lives. Having freedom, joy and peace. No matter if we are in Hawaii on vacation or five miles from our home on a random Friday evening!
At the end of Eric Clapton’s interview he said: “The greatest thing that I have is being awake for my life, and being able to participate, and having no more dark secrets which damage me, and that, I’ve gotten through staying sober.”
We should all feel this way. Life is a gift meant to be enjoyed and felt. If you are still addicted to sugar, do not give up. I am a Food Addiction Recovery Coach and I would love to walk alongside you and help you build a foundation for a lifetime free of addictive eating.
Check out my most popular course here: 30 Day Addiction Recovery Course.
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In Freedom,
Sarah Grace
