Your Brain On Sugar...is it really a drug?

You had a bagel for breakfast....and now it's 10:30 am, and like a junkie you're already craving more food. Well.....scientist say that that drug comparison… might not be far off. A study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says refined carbs like sugar, corn syrup, or white flour for instance, could trigger food cravings that are similar to the cravings experienced by drug addicts. The study which looked at men ranging from overweight to obese, hypothesizes that the sharp drop in blood sugar after eating cookies or chips, may not only make you hungrier, but also makes the idea of eating, more rewarding and pleasurable to your brain. David Lugwig who coauthored the study, pointed out that these foods "hijack the highly evolutionarily based reward system, putting it into overdrive."  Our bodies break down carbohydrates into sugar or glucose and when we eat refined carbs, it causes our blood sugar to spike. Where as if we eat something like vegetables, it takes a long time to break down…slowly raising our blood sugar. Lugwig and his colleages gave 12 participants one of two identical tasting drinks. One contained corn syrup and the other corn starch. The corn syrup based drinks caused a rapid rise in blood sugar levels in test subjects, who then reported being very hungry after their blood sugar levels crashed. Scans of their brains showed activation in their reward and addiction regions. 

Earlier this year, another study done, showed rats who easily became addicted to cocaine also apparently became addicted to high-fructose corn syrup.  Study author Francesco Leri said "We have evidence in lab animals of a shared vulnerability to develop preferences for sweet foods and for cocaine.  There is now convincing neurobiological and behavioral evidence indication that addiction to food, is possible."  Previous research has also shown that when animals get "hooked" on sugar, taking it away can lead to symptoms that look like withdrawals in addicts. That's something to think about when you're standing in line at Starbucks.

Delight In Those Omega 3's!

Omega-3 fatty acids are a naturally occurring fat in particular foods and they have far reaching health benefits.  Studies suggest they help fight heart diseases and help protect against depression, dementia, cancer and arthritis.  The health benefits can differ greatly from one source to another. So the best place hands down to get your omegas-3's is the fatty fish and cold water fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines etc.  If you prefer not to eat fish you can get the acids through a fish oil.  However because there are some toxins in the ocean you need to make sure that it is molecularly distilled for purity or certified free of mercury and PCB's. If you don't wish to eat a meat based source, the next best place would be the plant based foods such as walnuts, canola oil, soy beans, chia seeds and flax seeds.  

A healthy body can manufacture the components of Omegas-3's, but your body needs to add something to that form to get the components that you need because of it's imperfect form.  Flax oil, flax seeds or hemp seeds are easy to work with because they have a neutral taste. The flax seeds you have to grind up to make all the good stuff  bioavailable when you eat it. The chia seed however is digestible and all you have to do is sprinkle 1 or 2 tablespoons on your oatmeal, fruit smoothie, or in your pancake batter.

Omega 3's are one class of essential acids meaning that we HAVE to have these in our diets. And these are not so easy to get because there aren't too many dietary sources of them...meaning the oily fish. We need these in adequate amounts everyday for optimum health and it's not just for physical health but for mental health as well. Omega-3 fatty acids come in more than one form. The types found in fish, called DHA and EPA, have been studied most extensively and appear to have the strongest health benefits.  Both are necessary but DHA is the main constituent of cell membranes in the brain. DHA molecules are long-chain fatty acids. They're fluid and flexible.  They become part of the membrane of the brain cells and work at synapses, where the chemical signals jump from cell to cell.  And it appears that if you've got inadequate omega-3's in the diet and you're not getting enough DHA, it leaves the brain susceptible to all sorts of problems. It turns out that Omega-3 deficiency is a significant cause of depression. And it affects all kinds of depression such as bipolar depression, unipolar depression,  postpartum depression, seasonal affective disorder. 
When M. Elizabeth Sublette, MD, PhD, of the New York State Psychiatric Institute and her team of researchers reviewed 15 trials involving 916 participants, they concluded that supplements with at least 60% EPA improved depression symptoms. Their meta-analysis was published online in the September 2011 issue of theJournal of Clinical Psychiatry. A Canadian study published in the August 2011 issue of the same journal found that a similar 60/40 ratio of EPA/DHA eased depression somewhat in people with depression who didn’t have anxiety disorders.

“The human brain likely benefits from a combination of EPA and DHA since they occur together in nature and both have apparent benefits for depression and suicide,” Mischoulon notes.

• Omega-3s help some aspects of bipolar disorder. In an analysis led by researchers from Australia’s University of Melbourne, Mischoulon and colleagues concluded that omega-3s could have a significant effect on bipolar depression but not on bipolar mania.5

• Low omega-3 levels are associated with suicide and self-harm. In response to increasing rates of suicide in the military, researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently found that low blood levels of omega-3s were widespread and raised suicide risk by as much as 62%. The study was published online in the August 2011 issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

“A previous placebo-controlled trial demonstrated that 2 g of omega-3 fatty acids per day reduced suicidal thinking by 45% as well as depression and anxiety scores among individuals with recurrent self-harm,” says researcher Capt Joseph R. Hibbeln, MD, acting chief of the Section of Nutritional Neurosciences at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics in a press release from the NIH. He and other study authors concluded that “ensuring adequate omega-3 nutritional status is likely to benefit, and unlikely to harm, people at risk for suicide.”

• Omega-3s help menopausal depression. When 20 menopausal women with major depression took 2 g of EPA plus DHA daily for eight weeks, 70% found their mood improved, and 45% found their depression went into remission. Mean scores on the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale fell from 24.2 to 10.7. And the study participants enjoyed a bonus—fewer hot flashes—according to researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in the March 2011 issue of Menopause.

• Omega-3s improve depression during and after pregnancy. Low-dose DHA/EPA supplements lifted major depression for 15 pregnant women in a 2006 study published in Acta Neuropsychiatrica. Other research has found that women with higher intakes of omega-3s after pregnancy are at lower risk of postpartum depression.6

In a small 2006 study published in the January issue of Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 16 new mothers with postpartum depression took 0.5 to 2.8 g of EPA/DHA daily for eight weeks. Depression scores dropped about 50% in all groups. The researchers say that lifting postpartum depression is good for mothers and their babies: “Children of affected mothers may experience impaired attachment, and [postpartum depression] may adversely affect behavioral and cognitive development. Some women refuse medications during pregnancy and/or breast-feeding because long-term effects of antidepressants on the infant are unknown. Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation is associated with health benefits and is an attractive potential treatment.”

Making sure that you're getting an adequate omega-3 intake is a good way to treat and prevent depression as well as many other health benefits.