Why do people love sweets? Scientific attempts to understand sweet tooths. The character of a person and his favorite food

It is difficult to argue with the fact that it is taste that determines what dishes and in what quantity we eat. It is impossible to deny the fact that in the diet of some people there is more coffee and other sweets than in the diet of others. And no, the first ones eat this way not because they don’t want to - they simply cannot do otherwise. And if you thought that these were just excuses, then they have a completely scientific explanation.

It turns out that the tendency to consume not the most healthy foods is directly related to taste buds. Scientists from Cornell University have shown that "dull" (that is, less active) receptors limit our sensitivity to certain tastes, so that we end up choosing sweeter drinks and more sweetened and flavored foods that are difficult to call it healthy.

According to the researchers, these results may explain why some people put, for example, not one, but three or even four spoons of sugar in their morning coffee. "We found that the less sugar-sensitive a person becomes, the more sugar appears in the foods they consume daily," said study lead author Robin Dando.

According to Science Alert, the study involved 50 volunteers who drank low, medium or high concentrations of the plant Gymnema sylvestre, which can temporarily block the receptors that recognize sweet taste. The control group was also offered herbal tea, but the most ordinary one, without miraculous additives.

After this, participants were given an unsweetened drink and two additional solutions - a "sweeter" (250 g sucrose per liter) and a "less sweet" (0 g sucrose per liter) - asking them to adjust the sweetness in the original drink with the solutions to make it as comfortable as possible in terms of taste.

“There is an assumption that excess weight can reduce the sensitivity of receptors, and thus reduce the intensity of taste. Therefore, an obese person may begin to seek more intense stimuli in order to achieve a satisfactory level of nutrition, and only make their situation worse,” adds Dando.

Interestingly, in several previous studies on the same topic, scientists were able to prove that thin people are more sensitive to food. So taste buds, “tuned” in a certain way, can also work in the opposite direction. However, we don’t yet know anything about whether (and if so, how) we can reconfigure the receptors on our own.

It turns out that every emotion has a certain taste or aroma, and therefore, by eating certain foods, you can influence your psycho-emotional state

Modern doctors have noticed that the psychological factors of diseases are so strong that they often dominate over physiological factors in treatment. It is also noted that a person’s taste needs depend and are determined by his mental and emotional state, and not by reasonable expediency. And this is due to the fact that food is a source of not only nutrients for the physical body of a person, but also forms his emotional potential of the psyche. Simply put, it gives power to emotions.

The taste of food is an emotion

According to Ayurveda, there are 6 tastes:

• sweet
• sour
• salty
• bitter
• tart
• astringent

And if all these tastes are present in a balanced state, then food gives a person health and happiness. If this harmony is disturbed, which often depends on shortcomings of character and behavior, then illnesses occur.

So, for example, being in a state of laziness, a person wants a sweet taste. Sweet taste is useful, but from its excess, i.e. Excess sugar in the body reduces the defenses, the metabolism and function of the liver, pancreas, and small blood vessels are disrupted, and vision suffers. It has been noticed that a lot of sweets, especially in the evening, are consumed by those who try not to solve their problems.

When experiencing grief, a person unconsciously seeks to diversify his diet with such bitter foods as: mustard, rye bread, coffee. As a result, there is a high likelihood of chronic infections, diseases of the blood and skeletal system. A pessimistic, touchy person constantly strives to eat sour things. And sour in excessive quantities harms the heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, joints, and disrupts the internal environment of the body.

A fussy, tense person simply loves salty food. He loves her so much that he is ready to eat even sweets and salt. And too much salty food is an enemy of the blood vessels of the whole body, bronchi, kidneys, and joints. Stubborn, assertive, unrestrained people love things that are overly tart. Such food leads to diseases of the hormonal organs, bronchi, spine, joints, and bones.

Angry, overly temperamental people experience an addiction to spicy food, which results in inflammatory processes in the liver, pancreas, stomach, heart, and genitals. The need for fried food in a person arises when there is rudeness in the character, a feeling of fatigue and an aversion to work. And this leads to overload of the blood vessels of the brain, liver, stomach, and hormonal and immune functions are disrupted.

Greedy people love excessively fatty foods, which leads to diseases of the stomach, liver, skeletal system, and metabolic disorders.

Food taste and stress

People who are under constant mental stress, do not know how to distract themselves from problems, prefer to tone the body with tea, coffee, St. John's wort, and oregano.

Being in this state, a person, as a rule, begins to smoke, drink alcohol and other means of poisoning.

One way or another, but at the physiological level the result of such habits is damage to the blood vessels of the brain, heart, kidneys, and liver. Moreover, the functions of the gonads decrease and the circulatory system begins to suffer.

Irritable, stubborn, greedy, fussy people like to eat a lot, they rush while eating - excess weight appears, blood pressure disorders, hormonal disorders, disorders in the spine, and the body's defenses decrease.

Food and the modern world

With callousness, greed, bad attitude towards people, cruelty, excessive attachment to things, a craving for meat appears. And cruelty and straightforwardness causes a huge need for fish products. The result is pessimism, constant irritability, malignant tumors, accidents.

In addition, these meats and fish require a lot of energy to digest, which as a result leads to a weakening of all other functions of the body, including the natural desire for self-healing. Diseases become chronic.

So, what emotions are associated with food? Let's summarize:

grief - bitter emotions,

fear has an astringent character.

These two emotions aggravate the psycho-energetic flows in the human body, called “vata” in Ayurveda.

envy is a sour emotion,

anger is a caustic emotion.

These two emotions aggravate pitta.

desire and passion are sweet emotions,

greed is a salty emotion.

These two increase kapha.

A person who is passionate about what he loves, who treats people kindly, is not inclined to pervert his taste qualities, and thereby increases the opportunity to be healthy and happy.

Thus, by indulging our negative character traits, we acquire disturbances in harmonious taste sensations, which, in turn, forces us to eat meat, fish products, fried foods, tea, cocoa, and coffee. Excessively - sweet, - sour, - salty, - tart, - bitter, - fatty, - spicy. And with poor nutrition, diseases develop. This is how the mechanism of punishing a person for negative character traits works. Therefore, eat harmoniously and balanced, exclude meat, fish, coffee from your diet, reduce the amount of fried foods, and then you will help your body get rid of many diseases. published

P.S. And remember, just by changing your consumption, we are changing the world together! © econet

It is customary to end any holiday or celebration with a sweet dessert, cake and candy. From early childhood we wait for the New Year to receive a bag of sweets. Visits from guests or grandparents also always brought a lot of goodies.

The romantic period of a relationship is usually called the “candy-bouquet” period. As adults, we reward ourselves in moments of fatigue, sadness or boredom with “something tasty.” We imperceptibly get used to sweets, and then we reproach ourselves, asking the question “why do I love sweets so much”?

What is it: “sweet addiction” or something else? Let’s explore this topic. Sugar or glucose is the main source of energy for the brain and nervous system. When glucose levels are high, a person produces endorphins, which leads to a good mood. A decrease in glucose levels leads to a loss of vigor and activity, as well as increased irritation and apathy.

I love sweets very much, why?

The human body is a complex thing. Sweets and baked goods are simple carbohydrates that are quickly broken down into glucose in the body. As a result, glucose becomes more than normal, and this leads to excess blood sugar levels.

With the help of insulin, the body quickly lowers sugar levels. A sharp a decrease in glucose leads to an emotional and physical decline, and therefore the body again requires a portion of glucose to increase the level of vital energy.

The fastest way to replenish your glucose reserves is to eat something sweet: chocolate, candy, cake or bun. Glucose is found not only in sugar and flour products, it is found in potatoes, bread, and especially in various fruits and vegetables. The fact is that fruit glucose is quickly absorbed, but its effect is weaker, which is why those with a sweet tooth prefer to replenish the lack of sweets from confectionery products.

The causes of sweet addiction can be both physiological and psychological.
Physiological reason“Addiction” is when the body lacks chromium, magnesium or calcium, that is, the level of adrenaline and serotonin is reduced.

Emotional-psychological cause of sweet addiction:

• stress
• intense mental work
• insomnia
• love failures
• troubles
• depression
• banal boredom
• deficiency of joyful emotions

Men love sweets - for good reason

There are also quite a lot of “sweet tooth” among the representatives of the stronger sex. Men For other reasons they love sweets:

• The subconscious contains the memory of the very first living food product: mother's milk, it has a sweet taste, this is the basis of the genetic craving for sweets
• Taking care of their figure is not a big concern for men; they think less about calories and excess weight, and therefore can allow themselves to eat more sweets
• However, men are more seriously exposed to stress, choosing dangerous professions associated with risk and expenditure of nerves; in such situations, some kind of sweetness acts as compensation

A study was conducted in Britain: who loves chocolate more - men or women? It turned out that three-fifths of men admitted that they adore chocolate and would never give it up, and only every second woman has a passion for chocolate. Analysts summed it up: while women talk about chocolate, men eat it.

In the army, young men's sweet tooth is activated. This is due to a sharp change in lifestyle: a different diet, a strict regime, and greater physical activity. After the army, not everyone still has a craving for sweets.

Why do children love sweets?

The main reasons for cravings for sweets are the same as in adults. Perhaps this is how the lack of carbohydrates in the body is expressed, but more often children “eat up” the lack of attention, especially maternal attention, with sweets.

A dangerous product for children is ice cream, which gives a feeling of light bliss and momentary happiness. Clinical studies have shown that just one scoop of ice cream makes the brain's joy zones light up. Scientists compare this mechanism of action to drug addiction.

Many people who want to lose weight have encountered a problem: a clear understanding of the need to reduce the consumption of sweets does not always help to do this. This often leads to the fact that both those suffering from excess weight and their relatives begin to blame the problem on the person’s weak character and his insufficient desire to lose weight.

A group of researchers from Australia and the USA, led by Professor Liang-Dar Hwang, decided to find out what determines how people perceive the taste of sweets.

It turned out that our attitude towards desserts is influenced not by the gastronomic habits formed during life, but by genes.

You can read more about the results of the scientists’ work familiarize in the journal Twin Research and Human Genetics.

The study involved 243 pairs of homozygous and 452 pairs of heterozygous twins, as well as 511 people without brothers or sisters. Each participant was asked to try four sweet substances - glucose, fructose, aspartame (a sugar substitute known as food additive E951), and a sweetener called DC neohesperidine (NHDC, or Dihydrochalcone Neohesperidine), obtained from citrus plants.

Scientists paid special attention to identifying the dependence of the perception of sweet taste on human genes. It is worth noting that homozygous twins have an almost identical genotype, since they develop from one egg, which is divided into two parts after fertilization. The genes of heterozygous twins developed from two different eggs are approximately 50% similar.

As a result of the work, it was found that genetic factors influence 30% of the differences in people's perception of sweet taste.

It is genes that explain why the same cake or glass of tea with sugar may seem too sweet to one person and not sweet enough to another. In addition, it turned out that the perception of natural sugars glucose and fructose and their artificial substitutes aspartame and DC neohesperidin depends equally on the genetic portrait of a person.

Daniel Reed, one of the authors of the study, comments on the findings as follows: “Consuming too much sugar is often perceived as weak-willed. However, the results of our work prove that the perception of sweet taste is already “built-in” into our genetic portrait. Just as people born with poor hearing turn on the radio at full volume, those born with genes that interfere with the normal perception of sweets add an extra spoonful of sugar to their tea or coffee just to taste it.”

The results of the work also explained why, as people age, they begin to show a preference for sweeter foods and drinks: each year of life reduces the perception of sweet taste by 2-5%.

Another group of American scientists from the State University of New York at Buffalo, led by Katherine Medler, found that the perception of sweet taste depends on another factor, namely a person’s weight. More details about the researchers' findings can be found here. familiarize in the journal PLoS ONE.

Scientists conducted experiments on mice, 25 of which were of normal weight, and 25 were obese due to an unbalanced diet. As a result of the work, it turned out that

in overly fat rodents, the number of taste receptors responsible for the perception of sweetness decreases, and those receptors that remain begin to work much worse.

While researchers cannot say why this is happening, however, a definite conclusion can still be drawn from the results of the work. It turns out that being overweight creates a kind of vicious circle that prevents you from losing weight: a worsening perception of sweet taste prevents overweight people from reducing its consumption.

If we add to this the findings of the research group of Liang-Dar Hwang, it becomes clear: only truly strong-willed people who are able to cope with both genetics and the consequences of other physiological events occurring in the body can change their diet and reduce the amount of sugar in their food. processes.

However, sweet is not the only taste, the perception of which depends on genetics. Previous research has shown that the ability to taste bitterness arose in East African populations about 1.1 million years ago and was an important step in human evolutionary development.

This was discovered by a group of researchers led by Michael Campbell from the University of Pennsylvania. The scientists' article was published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

During the work, the genetic data of people living in Africa were studied. Representatives of African populations were chosen because this continent is where the first modern humans appeared. Scientists studied the evolution of the TAS2R16 gene, which is responsible for the functioning of the salicin-sensitive taste receptor. Salicin is a bitter-tasting substance found in many nuts, fruits and vegetables.

Scientists have found that the mutation of the TAS2R16 gene, thanks to which humans began to sense bitterness better, arose about 1.1 million years ago.

According to the authors of the work, this ability has significantly helped a person to better distinguish poisonous or spoiled foods from safe food: quite often, a bitter taste serves as a kind of signal that the plant is unfit for consumption.

Professor Daniel Reed said that he and his colleagues are going to continue working on the study of sweet taste and find out what genetic mechanisms are responsible for its perception.

“In previous decades, quite a lot of research has been carried out aimed at studying the genetic basis of the perception of bitter taste. We will try to discover similarities in the DNA of those people who have a low sensitivity to sweets,” the scientist promised.

Love sweets- this is part of our nature. The mechanism of attachment to sweets is clearly explained in his works by cognitive philosopher Dan Dennett: long before we had the opportunity to stand at the counter, choosing between pea sprout salad and eclair, our ancestors spent their days scouring for food. To encourage the consumption of nutritious foods, foods high in energy had to be included in our range of preferences. Therefore, evolutionarily it is inherent in us that everything that is high in calories - sweet and fatty - causes a positive reaction in us.

In other words, pleasant sensations when fixating the taste of sweets are an intuitively developing preference for high-energy foods. But the fact is that donuts, chocolates, condensed milk and even grandma’s “Napoleon” were not taken into account by evolution. Darwin's girlfriend expected us to devour fruit, not cake, in pursuit of essential nutrients. Why then, when under stress, do we want to destroy a box of truffles or a Prague cake, and not snack on an apple or, in extreme cases, a banana?

Text: Yunna Vradiy

The birds know the answer to the question. Birds and Nicolaas Tinbergen - Dutch ethologist and ornithologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973 “for his discoveries related to the creation and establishment of models of individual and group behavior of animals.” Tinbergen introduced the concept of “superstimulus” after his experiment with seagulls: he made the orange spot on the bird’s beak larger and brighter, as a result of which the chicks pecked at it much more actively - they were more attracted to it and liked it more. So a simple stimulus (a standard beak with a small dot) became a super stimulus (an enlarged orange spot). And in the same way, Oreo cookies excite most of us more than the prospect of eating a pear. A superstimulus is more active than a simple stimulus in influencing the construction of constructive connections in our brain and shaping our taste preferences. Therefore, an addiction to chocolate may arise after the first acquaintance with it, but the habit of snacking on fruit instead of a candy bar can take many months to develop.

From a certain perspective, sugary foods in and of themselves aren't that bad. In many ancient cultures, this type of food is considered healthy or healing. Thus, in the ancient system of Indian medicine, Ayurveda, there is the concept of “sattvic nutrition,” by adhering to which you can achieve a sharp mind, a strong body and good health. “Of the six tastes, only sweet is considered sattvic, since it is pleasant, nutritious and has harmonizing properties,” writes Yoga Journal Russia. Wild sugarcane stalks have been cultivated in India for thousands of years, and before the Common Era, cane sugar reached Europe in the form of syrup and as a medicine. Under the leadership of the Arabs in the 9th century, sugar began to be produced in Egypt, Southern Spain and Sicily. And in the 10th century in Venice, sugar took the form of conical heads.

However, almost ten centuries passed before sugar ceased to be a medicine or a luxury item. It was only in the 19th century that refined sugar became widespread, and humanity experienced many health problems. In modern traditional medicine, foods high in glucose are indicated for physical exhaustion, intoxication, a number of liver diseases, and shock conditions. In case of poisoning, no one will force the patient to chew healthy nuts or choke on salad - in order not to burden the body with food, but to quickly saturate with energy, he will be given sweet water or tea. And those who have run a marathon at least once know what a life-saving and stimulating effect glucose has on a body seemingly already killed by running, which is why athletes are also given glucose during high-intensity training.

In the modern world, the love of sweets is equated to a mild form of drug addiction.

In 2009, Robert Lasting, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco, pediatrician and endocrinologist, posted a video online “ Sugar: the bitter truth" The hour and a half lecture, which was watched by almost 5 million people, explains the mechanism of how sugar affects our body from a biochemical point of view. Lasting explains that sugar (sucrose) is made up of two simple sugars: glucose and fructose. Glucose is also found in starchy foods such as potatoes, our body reproduces glucose and it is an essential nutrient for it.

It's a completely different story with fructose. Humans do not reproduce fructose and have never consumed it on a regular basis - only during fruit season, which before the advent of modern agriculture and globalization occurred in a scant number of months of the year. And if any cell of our body can assimilate glucose, then only the liver takes on fructose. And it quickly gives up - with large volumes of incoming fructose, the liver gets tired of fiddling with it and sends it to hell, that is, to the fat reserve. Lasting believes that excess consumption of fructose causes irreversible metabolic disorders, liver inflammation, acute heart disease, diabetes and cancer. In addition, the scientist believes that fructose affects the dysregulation of fat levels, when the body begins to increase its “reserves” instead of spending the resulting calories on active life activities.

Dr. Lasting's opinion regarding the role of insulin metabolism disorders in the process of excess weight accumulation is shared by scientist and practicing surgeon Peter Attia. For many years, the doctor saw obese people on his operating table, suffering from diabetes and in need of amputation of a limb, and each time he silently judged them: “How can you neglect your body like this? How can you let excess weight ruin your health? Ironically, a zealous athlete and adherent of a strict diet, Attiya himself fell ill with “acquired” diabetes. This made him rethink his attitude. Today he is working on the problem of controlling insulin levels in the blood to prove that excess weight may be just a consequence of metabolic disorders and health problems such as diabetes. “What if people don’t get sick because they’re fat, but people get fat because they get sick?” - one of the main questions of the lecture “Obesity hides a big problem”, which Robert Attia ends, barely holding back tears of remorse. All this means that those who do not have weight problems at all should monitor their insulin and sugar intake.

You don't have to overeat on cakes, but you can gain weight from eating sugar. We know that even a sandwich or pizza is less likely to turn into wrinkles on our sides if we don't wash it down with sweet coffee and cola. However, our taste habits, and sometimes an acute addiction to sweet drinks, encourage us to do just that.

In the modern world, the love of sweets is equated to a mild form of drug addiction: sugar does not contain any vitamins or microelements, spoils health, but at the same time causes the release of endorphins into the blood. I ate it and enjoyed it. “Sugar rehabs” already exist! One of them, with the slogan “Free yourself from sugar - start living life to the fullest!”, was opened by Swedish professor Bitten Jonsson. Treatment takes from a month to six months, during the process patients go through the same stages as other addicts - from depression and attacks of anger to increased physical discomfort.

You can give up sweets by a strong-willed decision, but get them latently along with industrially manufactured products. Everyone knows that “sugar sells”, which is why today it can be found in bread, ketchup, lasagna, canned beans, pates - and so on. Just not on the product label - the food industry lobby, hiding behind the need to “keep the recipe secret,” has achieved that there is no need to place information on the packaging about how much sugar is contained in the finished product.