The Ultimate Performance Center

Sweet Behavior

I’m sure you’ve heard many people say, “I get fat just thinking about food”. As bizarre as that statement sounds there really is a lot of (scientific) truth supporting it. Here’s a simple explanation.

Sugar ingestion of any kind, natural or man-made, releases insulin into the bloodstream. Produced by the pancreas gland, amongst other roles, insulin is a hormone that serves as a shuttling agent responsible for chaperoning glucose (sugar) through the bloodstream and into the cells of the body to provide the cells with energy. The more sugar a person eats the more insulin their body needs to produce placing greater demands onto their pancreas glands. Those who are addicted to sugar, and consume it consistently, condition their pancreas to release insulin more frequently and at greater volumes than normal; this is a classic maladaptive behavior habit.

What’s so ironic, the brain-pancreas system becomes so conditioned to releasing insulin for chronic sugar-holics that these people don’t even need to actually (physically) consume sugar to trigger this effect. Whenever their brain senses sugar a ‘conditioned response’ (neuro-programming) is trained to believe sugar ingestion is surely going to occur. The sensation or anticipation from the thought, smell, sound and even sight of sugar alone is sufficient instigation to trigger insulin production. So if you’re trying to lose excess weight make sure you close your eyes and plug your ears during television commercials advertising all those yummy-for-your-tummy deserts and insatiable dishes at famous pancake restaurants. This might sound pseudo scientific, but it’s as factual as a person who ‘thinks’ (fantasizes) about a sexual experience and concurrently releases a variety of procreative hormones.

Needless to say, excessive sugar consumption and insulin secretion becomes a dangerous habit that destroys cellular integrity and overall body constitution. It’s a process that inhibits useful blood glucose to enter the cells where it’s used as energy. So instead of yielding energy this process actually stores it away; and in places people just struggle to deal with like their love-handles, saddlebags, chins, etc.

Maladaptive behavior directly related to sugar consumption often leads to diabetes and obesity, epidemics that are completely out of control for adults and now youngsters in our high-sugar era of consumption. Additionally, sugar addiction degrades the integrity and vitality of the pituitary gland that, in turn, struggles to produce and release sufficient supplies of growth hormone that are necessary to keep the body charged with a healthy metabolism and to maintain homeostasis.

Insulin flow chart (basic understanding)

• Sugar is sensed by the brain; i.e., thought (memory or future projection), sight, smell or actual consumption.

• The brain reacts by signaling the pancreas to release insulin in preparation to manage energy.

• Insulin enters the bloodstream that then binds to sugar molecules chaperoning them into muscle cells.

• Muscle cell receptors will grant entry to sugar only when that muscle is depleted, or has room for this energy source.

• However, when muscle cells are already saturated with sugar; called glycogen at that point, the sugar is rejected by the muscle receptors returning it into normal circulation. When sugar is denied tissue access it has a higher (and easier) tendency to convert to fat and become stored within the body. (The genetic construction of the body desires to keep and preserve energy, it’s a caveman gene we haven’t yet outgrown.)

• Insulin-induced diabetes is linked to depression, hormonal imbalances and sexual dysfunctions, obesity, chronic fatigue, insomnia, and reduced quality of life.

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Written by John Abdo, ©, All Rights Reserved

Excerpts taken from Brain Sensation & Motivation

December 10, 2015 - Posted by John Abdo | Performance Library | brain, exercise, fitness, food, insulin, maladaptive behavior, Mind, muscle, obesity, sex, sugar, thought