3 Ways Sugar Is Ruining Your Mental Health

October 7th, 2021

By Kelly Brogan, M.D.

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

I’m a very visual person. When I meet a patient who presents with complaints of irritability, anxiety, foggy thinking, fatigue, and insomnia, I visualize something that looks like a concert of rising and falling graph lines, and I plot her day to day symptoms on this image. What I find is that the sugar rollercoaster accounts for the vast majority of symptoms troubling patients.

We know that sugar influences behavior; we see it in our kids and know not to give them a lollipop if we want them to read a book quietly at their desks. Somehow, though, we are not convinced of the powerful effects of this toxic substance on our adult bodies and brains.

Sugar disturbs mental health in at least three ways:

1. Starving the Brain

Here’s a typical scenario. You wake up, have a glass of orange juice and a bagel (or a bowl of “healthy” cereal, or a Special K Bar), and your pancreas is confronted with a wave of sugar that it does not react kindly to. It puts out a counterwave of insulin, charged with sweeping that sugar into cells for energy production. The resultant dip in blood sugar can alarm the body and the adrenal glands, making them work over time.  These glands are charged with producing cortisol (which ultimately promotes insulin resistance or the lack of cellular response to insulin) and fight or flight chemicals that can get your heart racing, and rachet up anxiety.  The solution to this agitated slump is often a follow up serving of refined carbohydrate and/or caffeine and sugar – midmorning cookie with coffee.

The more days of your life you engage in this pattern of sugar and refined carb consumption, the more your brain suffers, potentially even putting you at risk for Alzheimer’s dementia, down the line[1][2].

CONTINUE READING:

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