PUNCH
Last year, I announced my 50th birthday. I did not know that some readers kept the date and this year, I got birthday wishes without even reminding you all. I can confidently say that what we share is more than a writer-reader bond. We are one big family.
Thank you for all your prayers and gifts. I am immensely grateful.
Please, permit me to share a story with you. In 1989, while I was preparing for my WAEC examination, I had a big boil in one of my armpits. Another one appeared on the second armpit and smaller boils surrounded it. I started walking around with my arms akimbo because placing my arms down meant pressing the boils and that would increase my pain.
I visited the hospital and immediately the doctor checked my two armpits, he started giving me lectures on sugar and how it impacts our health negatively. He told me that all the carbohydrates we eat break down to glucose in our body and that we do not even need to sweeten our food.
The doctor knew that the kind of boil invasion I had could be a sign of high blood sugar. His prescription was injections! I had to beg him to give me antibiotics instead. The reason I gave him was that as the head girl of my school, it was not convenient to report to the hospital daily because I had duties.
When I got home, my parents were angry with me for refusing to take injections. They felt that it would have been the appropriate form of treatment I needed at that point. The truth is that I have a phobia for injections, and being the head girl was just a flimsy excuse, after all, there was an assistant head girl who could stand in for me.
Sugar occurs naturally in all foods that contain carbohydrates, such as fruits and vegetables, grains, and dairy. Consuming whole foods that contain natural sugar is okay, your body digests these foods slowly (not all of them though. I am happy we now know the foods with high glycaemic index) and the sugar in them offers a steady supply of energy to your cells.
However, problems occur when you consume too much added sugar that is, a sugar that food manufacturers add to products to increase flavour or extend shelf life.
You must have heard that sugar is psychoactive. Let us find out. Eating sugar releases opioids and dopamine in our bodies. This is the link between added sugar and addictive behaviour.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is a key part of the “reward circuit” associated with addictive behaviour. When a certain behaviour causes an excess release of dopamine, you feel a pleasurable “high” that you are inclined to re-experience and so repeat the behaviour.
Sugar stimulates the reward circuits within our brains. So, when sugar is eaten or drunk and triggers feelings of joy, it is interpreted by our brain as something that is essential for our survival and should be repeated.
Many brain scan studies show similarities in the brains of people who are obese and people who abuse drugs and alcohol. So, the potential for sugar to be habit-forming and addictive is always there. A review published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine has claimed that refined sugar has a similar effect on the brain as illegal drugs such as cocaine. In studies on rats, it has been found that there are significant similarities between eating sugar and drug-like effects such as bingeing, craving, tolerance, withdrawal, dependence, and reward.
