Eli5: Do we actually get sugar highs and sugar rushes as kids or was that just myths?
In: Chemistry
People tend to think of sugar as an ingredient we can add to our body in order to make our body work faster and our mind be manic.
That’s not how it actually works. We do need to maintain a healthy level of sugar in our blood. But when we dump a lot of sugar into our bodies, especially sucrose or fructose, the result isn’t tons of extra energy; it’s tons of extra insulin, and fat deposits on our livers, and it can trigger headaches.
Too little sugar also triggers headaches! Sugar isn’t magic and it isn’t a monster. But the Western diet, especially the American diet, contains a quantity and type of sugar that is recognized by science as being very bad for the body. Laypeople know this, but they create a more direct link in their minds between sugar intake and behavior than science supports.
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