Many scientists believe our love of sugar may actually be an addiction (上瘾). When we eat or drink sugary foods, the sugar goes into our blood and influences the parts of our brain that make us feel good. Then the good feeling goes away, leaving us wanting more. All tasty foods do this, but sugar has an especially strong influence. In this way, it is an addictive drug(药) that doctors suggest we should all cut down on.
"It seems like every time I study an illness and follow a way to the cause, I find my way back to sugar," says scientist Richard Johnson, One-third of adults worldwide have high blood pressure, and up to 347 million have diabetes(糖尿病). Why? "Sugar, we believe, is one of the causes, if not the major(主要) cause," says Johnson.
Our bodies are designed to live on very little sugar. Early humans often had very little food, so our bodies learned to be very experienced in storing sugar as fat. In this way, we had energy stored for when there was no food. But today, most people have more than enough. So the very thing that once saved us may now be killing us.
So what is the solution? It's clear that we need to eat less sugar. The trouble is, in today's work, it's not easy to avoid. From breakfast cereals(谷物) to after-dinner desserts(甜点), our foods are increasingly filled with it. Some producer even use sugar to replace taste in foods that are advertised as low in fat. So while the foods appear to be healthier, plenty of sugar are often added.
