Sugar creates such a craving in people it is sometimes likened to an addictive drug. Doctors Health Press reported eating sweets may create memories which may control our eating habits. Researchers have found that eating sweet foods can lead to the formation of a memory of that meal in the brain. The resultant activation of certain neurons in the dorsal hippocampus may control our eating habits. This study has been published in the journal Hippocampus.
Decisions about what we want to eat at a given time are based on our memory of what we ate and when we ate says study author Marise Parent. It has been observed that dorsal hippocampal neurons become temporarily inactive after a meal with surcrose. Therefore the time period in which the subject forms a memory from the meal speeds up the beginning of the next meal and causes the subject to eat more food.
It has been found in previous research that there is an association with obesity with an increase in snacking habits. Obese people generally consume snacks more than those people with a healthy weight. Large amounts of sugar consumption has also been found to be linked to depression, anxiety, nervous behavior, gallstones, kidney stones, yeast infections, gout, high cholesterol and high triglycerides.
Georgia State University reports on the formation of a memory of a meal from eating sweet foods. This formation of memories of meals is significant to a healthy diet. When the encoding of the memory of a meal in people is disrupted by such factors as watching television there is often more food eaten at the next meal. People with amnesia will generally eat again if they are presented with food even if they have just eaten because they do not have a memory of the meal. An understanding of these factors helps us to understand some of the reasons for over-eating and obesity and why it’s a good idea to cut down on consuming too much sweets.
