Blood Sugar: Why Are We So Attracted to Sweets?

When I meet people at the clinic and ask if they like to eat sweets, almost everyone replies affirmatively. Often, their love for sweets is the key to understanding their health issues, such as various allergies, runny noses, and more.

When we delve a little into the intricacies of our body's metabolism system, we learn some interesting things about ourselves. A person after significant physical activity, such as a long run of a few kilometers or a long and fast walk, will often feel an amazing sense of calm, joy, and great happiness. Another interesting phenomenon occurs: if they have health awareness, they often seek "healthy" food after physical activity, such as vegetables, fruits, dates, and are less likely to seek foods containing simple carbohydrates and sugars like cake and so on. What is the reason for this feeling? Well, during physical activity, the brain releases various hormones that positively affect our mood, instilling a sense of calm and tranquility in us. The most well-known of these hormones is the hormone serotonin.

To produce the hormone serotonin, the body needs carbohydrates and sugars. This explains our mood after eating carbohydrates and sweets – the level of the hormone and its release from the brain increases. In light of this, it's understandable why after physical activity, when our mood is uplifted, we mainly seek healthy foods like vegetables and tend to avoid junk food or foods containing simple sugars. This is because our mood is already good, so we don't need sweets. Hence, our need for sweets is to raise the serotonin level and improve our mood. In many cases, this need increases when our mood is low or when we feel depressed or frustrated.

Eliyahu Shechter is an iridologist and natural therapist