Sugar craving is a common phenomenon. Some crave sugar for physiological reasons while others have a psychological reason. For instance, you are in a morning meeting in the office, which has taken longer than usual, and in between this, you often hear your stomach growling. That’s because you are starving and the moment your body doesn’t get enough nourishment, the cravings crank up fast, and at this time, sugar cravings can come on strong.

Similarly, if you eat a healthy dinner and feel completely full by the time you finish. And moments later, you have enough room and appetite for a yummy dessert, chances are that you have a  ‘dessert stomach’. Experts have found out that it is a built-in mechanism when we have room for dessert after a meal, even when we are full.

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne, Germany, have discovered that the ‘dessert stomach’ is rooted in the brain. The nerve cells that make us feel full after a meal are responsible for these cravings for sweets afterwards. The researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne have recently conducted a study on mice where the findings reveal the reaction of mice to sugar and found that completely satiated mice still ate desserts.

What happens to humans? The scientists carried out brain scans on volunteers who received a sugar solution through a tube. They found that the same region of the brain reacted to the sugar in humans. In this region, as in mice, there are many opiate receptors close to satiety neurons.

“From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense: sugar is rare in nature, but provides quick energy. The brain is programmed to control the intake of sugar whenever it is available,” explains Henning Fenselau, research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research and head of the study. Having said that, the ‘dessert stomach’ done by the research group could also be important for the treatment of obesity. “There are already drugs that block opiate receptors in the brain, but the weight loss is less than with appetite-suppressant injections. We believe that a combination with them or with other therapies could be very useful. However, we need to investigate this further,” says Fenselau.

The Lancet medical journal this month has already shared an estimate of rising population due to obesity — 380 crore people, or over half of all adults globally, and 74.6 crore people, or a third of all children and adolescents worldwide, will be overweight or obese by 2050.

In 2021, nearly 211 crore people, about 45% of the global population, were reported as obese or overweight. About half of these people were found in just eight countries: China (40.2 crore), India (18 crore), the USA (17.2 crore), Brazil (8.8 crore), Russia (7.1 crore), Mexico (5.8 crore), Indonesia (5.2 crore), and Egypt (4.1 crore).

The global prevalence of obesity has increased by 155.1% in males and 104.9% in females since 1990, the study said. In India, the prevalence of obesity was estimated at 4.4% for males and 7.5% for females.

While China, India, and the USA had the most number of obese or overweight people, the most rapid rise of obesity prevalence was observed in the north Africa and the Middle East super-region, the study said.

It is also clear that obese people may find it more difficult to stay away from sweet foods than individuals who are lean, because of a dysfunction in their brains. The Washington University School of Medicine in a study confirmed that as young people reach adulthood, their preference for sweet foods typically declines. But for people with obesity, research suggests that the drop-off may not be as steep and that the brain’s reward system operates differently in obese people than in thinner people, which may play a role in this phenomenon.

 

 

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.