Why are we so addicted to carbohydrates and why is it so hard to break the addiction?

Many of us are addicted to carbohydrates without even knowing it.

Years ago, sugar manufacturers were successful at marketing many sweet products that were high in sugar and were irresistible. If you remember Karo syrup, or Bosco chocolate syrup, or other products such as captain crunch, these products likely got you addicted.

Carbohydrates act on the pleasure center of the brain. When they are not present, you may find yourself always looking for that sweet thing to snack on.

This has resulted in an explosion of diabetes cases and sugar is highly inflammatory in our systems, which leads to many diseases over time that were not present years ago.

Carbohydrates such as sugar cause insulin levels to rise and this rise increases your compulsion to snack and eat.

Interestingly enough, if you stay away from sweets for a month or so, you stop craving them.

Staying away from sweets is hard, especially around the holidays when they are all around us. Perhaps this is why so many of us fall off our diets around the holidays.

Recently, the NY Times covered this phenomenon. Check out their article below

Are You a Carboholic? Why Cutting Carbs Is So Tough

By Gary Taubes July 19, 2017

I’ve been eating a high-fat, carb-restricted diet for almost 20 years, since I started as an experiment when investigating nutrition research for the journal Science. I find it’s easy for me to maintain a healthy weight when I eat this way. But even after two decades, the sensation of being on the edge of a slippery slope is ever-present.

The holidays and family vacations are a particular problem. Desserts and sweets, it seems, will appear after every lunch and dinner, and I’m not particularly good at saying no when everyone else is partaking. The more sweets I eat, the more we eat as a family, the longer it takes upon returning home before that expectation of a daily treat fades away.

What I’ve realized is that eating a little of a tasty dessert or a little pasta or bread fails to satisfy me. Rather it ignites a fierce craving for more, to eat it all and then some. I find it easier to avoid sugar, grains and starches entirely, rather than to try to eat them in moderation. The question is why.