Processed Sugar can cause Addiction and Depression?

Yep! That's the title of the most recent acticle I have been reading. It was the first link for the search "depression and sugar" on google and was directed perfectly to the question that has been on my mind for the past few weeks and even months. Shortly after beginning this journey I noticed myself having a more difficult time staying mentally positive and physically energized. Even my husband mentioned that I just didn't seem myself. I felt disinterested in things that normally captivated me. I wanted to sleep more and converse less. I thought it was just the life changes we have experienced recently; changing things up takes time to adjust? That theory can only last for so long. When things didn't get better I started to wonder if perhaps it had something to do with the drastic change of sugar consumption I had made. But shouldn't that make me feel better? Shouldn't being one of the few americans who won't consume the traditional 100 pounds of sugar a year per person make my brain and body and spirit soar? What's the problem? All this effort and I feel worse? I knew I had to be missing something. Let me remind you here that all my life up to this point I have been well above average in the sugar-consumption parade. In fact, I may have been leading it - not so much the amount I consumed but simply the frequency with which I wanted or thought about it.
Well this article helped me put a few things into perspective..... So just for review:
1. Processed (prepared or modified) sugar is quickly absorbed directly into the blood stream and has no nutritional value.
2. Once in the blood stream, this sugar cause rise in insulin levels.
3. THIS ALSO RAISES THE ENDORPHIN LEVELS, a natural mood upper in the brain!
Did you hear that, no you didn't, but did you read that....... yet another source that states sugar is a drug, a chemical that affects the brain and can cause a "high" mentally, which results in a mood lift.

So let's be sure we understand what an endorphin is: "any group of peptide hormones that bind to opiate receptors and are found mainly in the brain. Endorphins reduce the sensation of pain and effect emotions."

There you have it. Sugar can reduce the sensation or perception of pain and, at least momentarily, effect our emotions. But let's remember here the law of gravity.... what goes up must come down. So if our moods are chemically altered by a sugar high, it naturally leads to a bit of a nose-dive clean up job that our body has to do to return to homeostasis or in this case, a stabilized blood sugar level. Why is this important? What does this yo-yo effect do to our body? Stay tuned for more in the next blog post of SUGAR - friend or foe!