“It Started With Sugar”
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; 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.
Imagine the mouth-feel of your favorite guilty-pleasure food. That gooey, flaky, crunchy, smooth, puffy, bubbly concoction that you are imagining was carefully designed in a lab to be as addictive as possible so you can’t live without it. 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 excessive amounts of UPF and added sugar our brain chemistry literally changes.
Our brain chemistry changes through a process called “down-regulation.” Down-regulation is when our dopamine receptors literally 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.
The problem is, with less dopamine receptors, now we 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. Now, unless I get an even larger hit of sugar I will feel discontent and in a state of needing. And of course once I get that huge hit the cycle will repeat!
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 was 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…”
That gives me chills. Sugar changes our brain chemistry, leading to tolerance, addiction, and even vulnerability to other addictive substances.
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.” 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 some darn chocolate, I wanted a ton of it, and I wanted it all to myself.
Now, fast forward to a random evening recently in Charlottesville, Virginia, 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 torment and craving, I felt content. There was no need or lacking, I felt whole and complete. 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.
If you can relate to me more in Hawaii than in Charlottesville, it’s okay! There is good news: Our brain can heal, and quickly! All we have to do is eat what we were designed to eat: Real, whole food. And our body and brain will do the rest. Our brain will become healthy again and react to the stimuli around us in an appropriate way. Our life will not dulled by the effects of sugar, our brain needing a huge amount of stimuli to feel pleasure!
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.”
This is what God wants for us. Being able to participate and be awake for life. 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. Even the hard days will be more manageable when our brain is healthy and operating the way God intended.
In Freedom,
Sarah Grace
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