Andrew Huberman· PhD
sugar really impacts our brain and body by two main mechanisms. One of those mechanisms is based on the sweet taste of sugar, which itself is rewarding.
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The headline is broadly defensible, but the qualifications matter. Effect sizes vary by population, the strongest claims rest on shorter trials, and credible voices push back on how it's typically framed.
sugar really impacts our brain and body by two main mechanisms. One of those mechanisms is based on the sweet taste of sugar, which itself is rewarding.
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In the case of sugar consumption, the two parallel pathways involve one pathway related to the actual taste and the perception of sweet tastes that lead not just you but every animal that we're aware of to seek more sweet containing foods. The other parallel pathway is related to the nutrative component of sweet foods. Meaning the degree to which a given food will raise blood glucose.
The sweet pathway is what we would call hardwired? It exists, as far as we know, in every mammal. Basically, getting sweet stuff into the body might seem like it has a lot to do with the taste, but it has just as much to do with the nutrative components that sweet tasting foods carry and the fact that your nervous system and so many cells in your brain and body run on glucose.