Sugar, Sugar
When the sugar train starts, it’s difficult to understand what’s going on…and it’s easy to disconnect from the body. It’s easy to lose all motivation. It’s easy to become, well, blah.
Friends, that is not living. I believe with all of my heart that we must learn how to live in our modern culture, integrating body and soul. It’s a journey, for sure. But freedom is possible.
Today I want to share the why we lose motivation for life when we eat too much sugar.
There is actually a biological reason for it. When I first learned about this, I felt relief. OH! I’m not just a weakling. There are things happening—things I cannot see.
So let’s take a closer look inside the body. WHY do we overeat? WHY do we lose motivation when we eat certain foods? WHY?
The truth? Sugar looks sweet, but she is a bit of a $#!%!. In truth, sugar consumption messes our body’s regulatory systems.
In order to understand this cycle, we need to know what’s going on with those regulatory systems. Dr. Susan Pierce Thompson, in her information-filled book, Bright Line Eating, shares that—believe it or not—the big answer came through rodents. In 1949 there was a group of mice that were not typical. They never moved. They just ate. They literally sat by the food trough and ate.all.day.long.
The only way they would move is if their food was moved! Then they would get up and waddle over to the new location, plop down and keep eating! This mystified scientists. Why did these particular mice act like every meal was perpetually their last meal? Why was their only goal in life to eat?
As you can imagine, this group of mice was obese.
Here’s what I think is fascinating. Since the scientists had no clue what was going on, they simply kept the strain breeding for years, until science could catch up. Isn’t that cool? And brilliant?
So in 1994, after studying the mice for EIGHT YEARS, a group in the molecular genetic department at Rockefeller University figured out the issue.
That strain of mice didn’t have a particular gene.
Why was that important? Well that missing gene (the ob gene) was responsible for creating a hormone that was supposed to send signals to the brain to STOP EATING and GO DO SOMETHING!
Without this absolutely essential hormone, the mice literally thought they were starving even as they ate all day long. They never got the message that they were full. They never received the motivational signal to go DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE.
The scientists called this hormone “leptin.” (If you are into root words, it’s from the Greek word “leptos” which means “thin.”)
Once those mice were given injections of that missing hormone, leptin, lo and behold, they became very different mice. They stopped their perpetual eating. They stepped on their little rodent wheel and yes, they got skinny.
Wowsa.
Of course the pharmaceutical industry went Lady Ga-Ga over this. A pill or injection that could make us skinny? Yes, please. Yet. ADDING leptin to humans didn’t do anything. Fun fact: humans HAVE leptin. In fact, most of us have too much leptin.
Important side note: They figured out that those mice reacted well to leptin injections because their little rodent bodies were producing zero leptin.
Wait. How do we have TOO MUCH LEPTIN? Well, when we eat a ton of food the extra goes to our fat cells and our fat cells actually secrete leptin. The purpose of leptin: to tell the brain to stop eating.
That’s right. Our bodies produce leptin. Leptin is NOT the problem. It actually WANTS to tell the brain to stop eating so darn much.
So what’s happening? It should be a perfect loop. Food comes into the cells, once they are full, leptin races out, delivering the message that “You are Full. Now Get to Work!”
Yet that’s not what is happening.
Scientists weren’t sure why our brains weren’t receiving the message. It turns out that something is blocking leptin from delivering the message (Pierce Thompson 41-45).
I find this fascinating. I am going to explain the science but I am going to explain it how I think about it.
I have always thought of my circulatory system as a giant roadway, with all sorts of vehicles going up and down my “roads” (or veins). Each vehicle has a specific purpose.
(Welcome to my brain.)
The hypothalamus:
This is Command Central, literally telling each “vehicle” where they need to go within the body. It’s fascinating. From this central location (located near the brainstem) the Command Center secretes hormones that stimulate the pituitary gland, which controls body temperature, hunger, our sex drive, thirst, fatigue, etc.
So, using my little roadway analogy, when sugar is eaten, it is like a drunk person in the body. It does not know where to go and it cannot get anywhere on its own. Sugar always needs a designated driver.
When we eat sugar, our hypothalamus, which again, is that command center, tells the pancreas to send out the “Uber driver” named Insulin.
Insulin:
This Uber driver, Insulin, picks up the sugar and takes it to the cell door. The cell door “opens” and receives the sugar. Insulin, because it is a smart driver, knows where the sugar needs to go and gets it there.
The more sugar we eat, the more insulin that is needed. So the command center sends out more Uber drivers (or insulin). The “extra” sugar is taken to fat cells for storage.
And Americans’ level of insulin is 45% more than normal (Pierce Thompson 44). That’s a helluva lot of Uber drivers on our inner roadways.
And those extra Uber drivers have parked their little Insulin cars all around the brain stem
Leptin is being released from the fat cell. It is driving up to the hypothalamus. But it cannot find a parking space due to all of the Uber drivers (Insulin) that are blocking the way.
Without leptin’s ability to deliver the message, the body thinks it is starving and has to keep eating and not work out.
Did you get that? There is a God-given natural, beautiful feedback loop within our bodies.
We eat.
When we are full, any extra goes into fat cells, which then release the hormone leptin, telling our brain we are now full and should go do something.
What jacks this up?
Sugar.
When we have too much sugar in our diet, the body produces insulin, which binds to the sugar and delivers it to different cells in the body.
INSULIN blocks leptin from being received by the brain.
Isn’t that crazy?
Guess which foods increase insulin?
Carbs.
The white stuff:
Flour and sugar.
Guess which foods don’t increase insulin?
Vegetables
Melons/Berries
Proteins: Chicken, Turkey, Beef, Pork, Fish, Eggs
Fats (avocados, coconut and olive oil)
Whole grains
Some beans
Nuts
Coffee. Yeah.
I’ve known this information since 2017. Yes, it was a massive light bulb moment for me. Yet this info alone was not enough to change behavior.
I think that’s important to note. Information alone doesn’t have the power to change our actions.
The “why” we do something is important, though, which is why I wanted to share this with you. What DID change my eating habits for the better? Well, it was an identity shift, when I realized that I am more than my food choices. I created a course about this. Enjoy.
Credits:
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson of Bright Line Eating (Susan is brilliant. And funny. I highly recommend jumping on Youtube and binge watching her. You will learn a lot and you will laugh.)
Dr. Robert Lustig from the UCSF Medical Center figured out what was causing the body to be resistant to leptin.