Sugar and Brain

Sugar cravings that strike after a meal may be due to serotonin, a feel-good brain chemical that’s associated with an elevated mood. 

Eating a sugary dessert causes serotonin levels to rise in the brain, which can make you feel calmer and happier.

There are basic physical reasons why we crave something sweet after a meal. Something sweet afterwards is the body’s way of trying to create balance. Eating salty food makes us feel like we “have to have” something sweet or we won’t feel at good.

For many people, eating dessert after meals is a habit. Rather than a physiological sugar craving, the desire occurs simply because you’re used to ending your meal with a sweet. It’s something you want versus something your body actually needs. Unbalanced meals that lead to an uneven blood-sugar level may also be to blame. For example, a meal comprised primarily of refined starchy foods that are quickly digested (e.g. white bread, white rice, refined cereals) will cause your blood sugar (glucose) to spike after eating. Soon after eating, this glucose soar is followed by a drop, causing you to crave sugar.

Finish your meal with a nutritious sweet dessert. Try a baked apple with dried cherries and maple syrup, homemade rice pudding or stewed fruit or honey mixed sugar free foods. Eat balanced meals. Add slowly digested, or low-glycemic index, carbohydrate foods to meals to help keep your blood-sugar level stable after eating. Low GI foods include 100-per-cent stone-ground bread, brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, sweet potato, new potatoes, legumes and most types of fruit. To suppress appetite longer after meals, include a source of protein at breakfast, lunch and dinner such as egg whites, Greek yogurt, poultry, fish, lean meat, tofu and legumes.