Picture warm, gooey cookies, crunchy candies, velvety cakes, waffle cones piled high with ice cream. Is your mouth watering? Are you craving dessert? Why? What happens in the brain that makes sugary foods so hard to resist?
Zamislite tople, mekane kolače, krckave bombone, vazdušaste torte, kornete pune sladoleda. Ide li vam voda na usta? Želite li dezert? Zašto? Šta se događa u mozgu
Sugar is a general term used to describe a class of molecules
što slatku hranu čini tako neodoljivom?
called carbohydrates, and it's found in a wide variety of food and drink. Just check the labels on sweet products you buy. Glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, lactose, dextrose, and starch are all forms of sugar. So are high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice, raw sugar, and honey. And sugar isn't just in candies and desserts, it's also added to tomato sauce, yogurt, dried fruit, flavored waters, or granola bars.
Šećer je zajednički naziv koji opisuje celu klasu molekula koji se zovu ugljeni hidrati i nalaze se u mnogim vrstama hrane i pića. Pogledajte oznake na slatkišima koje kupujete. Glukoza, fruktoza, saharoza, maltoza, laktoza, dekstroza, i skrob su vrste šećera. Kao što su i kukuruzni sirup, voćni sokovi, smeđi šećer i med. Šećer nije samo u bombonama i slatkišima, dodaje se i u paradajz sos, jogurt, suvo voće, aromatizovane vode
Since sugar is everywhere, it's important to understand
i table od žitarica.
how it affects the brain. What happens when sugar hits your tongue? And does eating a little bit of sugar make you crave more?
Budući da je šećer svuda važno je razumeti kako on utiče na mozak. Šta se događa kada šećer dodirne vaš jezik? I da li će unos malo šećera učiniti da želite još?
You take a bite of cereal. The sugars it contains activate the sweet-taste receptors, part of the taste buds on the tongue. These receptors send a signal up to the brain stem, and from there, it forks off into many areas of the forebrain, one of which is the cerebral cortex. Different sections of the cerebral cortex process different tastes: bitter, salty, umami, and, in our case, sweet. From here, the signal activates the brain's reward system. This reward system is a series of electrical and chemical pathways across several different regions of the brain. It's a complicated network, but it helps answer a single, subconscious question: should I do that again? That warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you taste Grandma's chocolate cake? That's your reward system saying, "Mmm, yes!" And it's not just activated by food. Socializing, sexual behavior, and drugs are just a few examples of things and experiences that also activate the reward system. But overactivating this reward system kickstarts a series of unfortunate events: loss of control, craving, and increased tolerance to sugar.
Uzmete zalogaj pahuljica. Šećer koji sadrže aktivira receptore za slatko koji se nalaze na jeziku. Ovi receptori šalju signal uz moždano stablo odakle se rašire u mnoge delove velikog mozga, između ostalog i u cerebralni korteks. Različiti delovi cerebralnog korteksa obrađuju različite ukuse: gorko, slano, umami i u našem slučaju, slatko. Odavde, signal aktivira moždani sistem za nagrađivanje. Sistem za nagrađivanje predstavlja niz električnih i hemijskih putanja duž nekoliko različitih delova mozga. To je komplikovana mreža, ali pomaže u odgovaranju na jedno, podsvesno pitanje: Da li da jedem slatko ponovo? Taj prijatan i topao osećaj kada okusite bakin čokoladni kolač - to vaš sistem za nagrađivanje kaže: "Mmmmmm, da!" Ali, taj osećaj ne izaziva samo hrana. Druženje, seks i droga su samo nekoliko primera stvari i aktivnosti koje aktiviraju sistem za nagrađivanje. Ali prečesto aktiviranje ovog sistema može dovesti do niza nepoželjnih događaja: gubitka kontrole, žudnje i povećane tolerancije na šećer.
Let's get back to our bite of cereal. It travels down into your stomach and eventually into your gut. And guess what? There are sugar receptors here, too. They are not taste buds, but they do send signals telling your brain that you're full or that your body should produce more insulin to deal with the extra sugar you're eating.
Vratimo se na naš zalogaj pahuljica. On odlazi u vaš stomak i stiže do želuca. I, pogađajte? I tamo postoje receptori za šećer. To nisu receptori za ukus, ali i oni šalju signale govoreći mozgu da ste siti ili da telo treba da proizvede još insulina da bi se izborilo sa dodatnim šećerom koji jedete.
The major currency of our reward system is dopamine, an important chemical or neurotransmitter. There are many dopamine receptors in the forebrain, but they're not evenly distributed. Certain areas contain dense clusters of receptors, and these dopamine hot spots are a part of our reward system. Drugs like alcohol, nicotine, or heroin send dopamine into overdrive, leading some people to constantly seek that high, in other words, to be addicted. Sugar also causes dopamine to be released, though not as violently as drugs. And sugar is rare among dopamine-inducing foods. Broccoli, for example, has no effect, which probably explains why it's so hard to get kids to eat their veggies.
Osnovna jedinica vašeg sistema za nagrađivanje je dopamin, važna hemikalija ili neurotransmiter. Postoji mnogo receptora za dopamin u velikom mozgu, ali nisu ujednačeno raspoređeni. Neki delovi imaju gušće receptore i dopaminski "centri" su deo našeg sistema za nagrađivanje. Droge poput alkohola, nikotina ili heroina, oslobađaju preveliku dozu dopamina, navodeći neke ljude da stalno žele taj osećaj odnosno, da budu zavisni. I šećer izaziva oslobađanje dopamina, ali ne tako agresivno kao droge. Šećer je redak primer hrane koja izaziva dopamin. Na primer, brokoli nema nikakav uticaj, i to je verovatno razlog zašto je teško naterati decu da jedu povrće.
Speaking of healthy foods, let's say you're hungry and decide to eat a balanced meal. You do, and dopamine levels spike in the reward system hot spots. But if you eat that same dish many days in a row, dopamine levels will spike less and less, eventually leveling out. That's because when it comes to food, the brain evolved to pay special attention to new or different tastes. Why? Two reasons: first, to detect food that's gone bad. And second, because the more variety we have in our diet, the more likely we are to get all the nutrients we need. To keep that variety up, we need to be able to recognize a new food, and more importantly, we need to want to keep eating new foods. And that's why the dopamine levels off when a food becomes boring.
Kad već govorimo o zdravoj hrani, recimo da ste gladni i odlučite se za zdrav obrok. Jedete, i nivo dopamina poraste u centrima za nagrađivanje u mozgu. Ali ako jedete isto dug period, nivo dopamina će bivati sve manji i manji, dok na kraju ne prestane da se luči. Ovo se događa jer je za hranu mozak naučio da obraća posebnu pažnju na nove i drugačije ukuse. Zašto? Dva razloga: prvo, da bi prepoznao pokvarenu hranu, i drugo, jer što je veća raznovrsnost naše ishrane, veća je verovatnoća da ćemo uneti sve potrebne hranljive materije. Da bismo jeli raznovrsno, moramo biti sposobni da prepoznamo novu hranu, i još važnije, treba da želimo da jedemo novu hranu. I upravo zbog toga dopamin nestaje
Now, back to that meal. What happens if in place of the healthy, balanced dish, you eat sugar-rich food instead? If you rarely eat sugar or don't eat much at a time, the effect is similar to that of the balanced meal. But if you eat too much, the dopamine response does not level out. In other words, eating lots of sugar will continue to feel rewarding. In this way, sugar behaves a little bit like a drug. It's one reason people seem to be hooked on sugary foods.
kada hrana postane jednolična. Hajde da se vratimo na taj obrok. Šta se događa ako umesto zdravog, izbalansiranog obroka, pojedete hranu punu šećera? Ako retko jedete šećer ili ne jedete mnogo odjednom, efekat je sličan kao i da ste pojeli izbalansiran obrok. Ali ako jedete mnogo, lučenje dopamina se neće smanjiti. Drugim rečima, ako unosite mnogo šećera i dalje ćete bivati "nagrađeni". Ovo je zato što se šećer ponaša malo kao droga. I to je razlog zbog koga se ljudi navuku
So, think back to all those different kinds of sugar.
na slatku hranu.
Each one is unique, but every time any sugar is consumed, it kickstarts a domino effect in the brain that sparks a rewarding feeling. Too much, too often, and things can go into overdrive. So, yes, overconsumption of sugar can have addictive effects on the brain, but a wedge of cake once in a while won't hurt you.
Razmislite o svim onim različitim šećerima. Svaki je poseban, ali svaki put kada je bilo koji unet on pokreće efekat domina u mozgu koji donosi osećaj nagrade. Premnogo, prečesto, i možete preterati. Dakle, da, preterani unos šećera može stvoriti zavisnosti u mozgu,