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Dessert is unforgivable. At least for many of us, despite having had our fill or even overindulged. It turns out that this is no accident, and that science supports the effect of consuming sugar when we are already full.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne, Germany, published a report in the journal Science that examined how sugar affects us once we have ‘eaten’. They found that hypothalamic pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons in the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that regulates our hormones and creates feelings of hunger, thirst, sleepiness and satiety after eating, are the main culprits.
‘We found that POMC neurons not only promote satiety under feeding conditions, but concomitantly activate the appetite for sugar, which drives overconsumption,’ the researchers explained.
The same nerve cells that make us feel satiated also trigger our cravings for sweets afterwards. In fact, they observed that even the ‘mere perception’ of eating sweets releases the ‘opioid ß-endorphin, which makes evolutionary sense because sugar provides quick energy’.