This is a short explanation of why our bodies go through sugar highs and sugar lows when we eat sugary foods. This is the main reason many of us end up craving sugar and often overeating. What I mean by a sugar high (or rush) is that sense of euphoria and high energy that occurs after you’ve eaten something sweet. It might not be something you distinctly notice, but when you think about it, it may well be a part of your lifestyle. An example would be picking up a candy bar at a convenience store on the way home from work because you’re tired and need some energy. A sugar low (or crash), on the other hand, reduces your energy level to the point that you are sleepy, irritable, and often intensely hungry. I don’t eat candy bars very often (I have other sources of sugar that I have trouble staying away from). When I do eat a candy bar, though, in most cases I am literally shaking with hunger in about 2 hours. If we eat too many sugary foods, we may suffer from a series of these highs and lows †first the high and then the low around 2 hours later. Unfortunately the low causes us to seek out some sugar again and the cycle repeats. Let’s first go over how our bodies consume sugar (or carbohydrates). After it’s digested, sugar enters the blood stream as blood sugar (glucose) and from there, it is absorbed and removed from the blood stream, either to burned by the cells in the body to provide energy or stored as fat, which can be later used to provide energy. The pancreas regulates the rate at which blood sugar is absorbed and therefore the level of blood sugar in the blood stream. To do this, the pancreas injects a hormone called insulin into the bloodstream. The insulin acts as a trigger mechanism for the cells in the body for this and the amount of insulin released therefore controls the rate that the blood sugar is absorbed. In between meals, the pancreas injects a nominal amount of insulin to give you the energy you need through the day. As you eat, it will detect additional blood sugar in the blood stream and inject more insulin to either burn it or store it as fat to keep the blood sugar at a consistent level. This is an important mechanism actually, because the existence of abnormally high or low blood sugar levels is quite dangerous. To explain why we have sugar highs and lows, we need to go back in our history a few thousand years and examine what human beings were eating in those days. Well, let’s face it †it was pretty dull, fibrous, unrefined stuff. Whatever we ate took a long time to digest, so the sugary stuff that we run across every day now just wasn’t readily available. Our whole process of consuming blood sugar was based on those times and really hasn’t changed much since. So, the speed with which 1) the brain instructs the pancreas to 2) adjust the insulin to 3) either increase or decrease blood sugar was matched to the very slow speed at which food was digested in those days. For our day and age, when we eat something really sugary, this just isn’t fast enough as explained in the following example. High Calorie - High Glycemic Index Candy likely to cause Sugar High or Sugar Rush 1) I eat an entire Snickers candy bar. Darn it †I deserved it! 2) My brain, taking it’s time, doesn’t realize till too late, that my blood sugar level is high. It reacts though and tells the pancreas to release a whole bunch of insulin to get that blood sugar level back down. 3) The pancreas jumps into action and releases lots of insulin into the blood stream. 4) The insulin does its thing and triggers my body to absorb the blood sugar, either as energy or for storage (fat). So I am in a Sugar High. I’m really feeling good †but I’m also a little fatter! 5) The insulin is still triggering the absorption of blood sugar and, unfortunately removes almost all of it. This level is much too low. Normally, the brain adjusts the insulin level to keep a moderate level of blood sugar in the blood stream, along with a moderate level of insulin, to steadily absorb the blood sugar for energy. 6) Now I’m in a sugar low. I’m shaking, hungry, and tired. I am craving sugar and really need something to eat. 7) The brain, still taking it’s time, realizes there’s no blood sugar in the blood stream and finally, but too late, tells the pancreas to stop pumping out insulin. 8) In most cases, I find something to eat. If it’s sugary I start back at step 1) again. So, that’s it in a nutshell †the vicious little cycle that will keep you moving from one sweet snack to another unless you find a way to get out of the rut.
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