Are Serotonin Problems Driving Your Sugar Cravings? by Joan Kent, PhD
By now, virtually everyone has heard of serotonin. It’s an important brain chemical that became commonly known due to anti-depressant medications. Problems with serotonin include depression, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), premenstrual syndrome (PMS), menopause, chronic alcohol use, and insulin resistance.
Any of these can lead to sugar cravings.
PMS includes a long list of symptoms and signs: anxiety, depression, irritability, mood swings, nervousness, angry outbursts, fatigue, fluid retention, bloating, weight gain, backache, cramps, headaches, joint pain, breast pain, insomnia, and acne. Ick.
Factors that contribute to PMS include hormonal changes, stress, diet, and lack of exercise.
Serotonin promotes relaxation, calm and satiety (the feeling we’ve had enough food). It can reduce stress, anxiety, and pain. The premenstrual drop in serotonin may lead to irritability, pain, depression, mood swings, impulsivity, increased appetite – and cravings, especially for carbs.
Poor Diet and Serotonin
Women with PMS tend to eat diets high in sugar, alcohol, white flour, salt, saturated fat, caffeine, and dairy products.
Women with PMS tend to eat diets low in B vitamins, protein, essential fatty acids, and fiber. Low intake of these foods and high intake of the foods listed above promote PMS symptoms.
Sugar worsens the intensity of PMS. It increases breast tenderness, congestion, and pain; abdominal bloating; and swelling of the face and extremities. Sugar also increases magnesium excretion, which in turn can result in irritability, anxiety, depression, and insomnia.
Any of those symptoms can bring on sugar cravings in a self-perpetuating cycle.
Insulin Resistance and Serotonin
Insulin resistance can cause sugar cravings and depression. Let’s see how that works.
Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas. It helps transfer glucose from the bloodstream to the cells. (It has other functions, as well.)
Under certain circumstances, someone might become insulin resistant. The cells no longer respond to insulin’s cues, and then don’t accept enough glucose. To get more glucose into the cells, the body starts producing more insulin. This may work and can continue to work until insulin production no longer outpaces the degree of resistance. [That’s an extremely oversimplified description of the onset of type 2 diabetes.]
Meanwhile, these high levels of insulin are not harmless. They’re likely to cause such health issues as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol problems, certain cancers, and more.
Insulin resistance per se doesn’t cause disease; the extra insulin that’s released to compensate for the resistance does. That extra insulin is associated with inflammatory hormones called Series 2 prostaglandins.
We usually hear that insulin resistance is caused by obesity. But that’s not the whole picture. Insulin resistance can be caused by genetics or by lifestyle – lack of exercise and/or poor diet.
So what does all of this have to do with sugar cravings?
The primary site of insulin resistance is skeletal muscle. Insulin-resistant muscle doesn’t allow glucose to enter the muscle cells, so the glucose is transported to fat cells. Cravings for carbs, specifically sugar, can result.
An interesting connection with depression exists, too.
As you recall from 7th grade biology (!!!), protein is made from amino acids. Insulin helps transport amino acids to muscles, where they’re used to form blood, hormones, and enzymes; heal wounds; repair tissues; and lots more.
A top-priority function is making brain chemicals from specific amino acids. The amino acid tryptophan is the one the brain uses to make serotonin.
But insulin resistance interferes with tryptophan’s transport to the brain. That lowers serotonin production, and low serotonin is linked to depression. Like any bad mood, depression can trigger cravings. Sugar cravings are common, possibly causing another self-perpetuating cycle.
For tips on eating to minimize symptoms and maximize your moods, just visit LastResortNutrition and grab your free Make Me Feel Great Now consult. Discover how a few small tweaks can bring huge results.
Brought to you by Dr. Joan Kent, best-selling author of Stronger Than Sugar.
