Dr. Charles Zuker: The Biology of Taste Perception & Sugar Craving

the lethargy that you feel soon after a high-carbohydrate meal. This happens because the pancreas, the organ that secretes insulin, isn’t an instrument of precision; it’s more like a blunt tool, meant to help us store fat during times of plenty

And sensory, pleasure-centric appetite doesn’t just serve to make our gustatory lives more enjoyable, it can actually improve the nutritional quality of our diets.

Maybe obesity rates have increased because food is more enjoyable than it has ever been, causing people to eat more. Rewards reinforce behavior, and the behavior of eating is rewarded by the palatability—the deliciousness—of the food. The increased palatability of food is not accidental. Societal changes have resulted in more meals being eaten away

“There is nothing programmed into our brains that makes us see a box of doughnuts and automatically want a sugary treat,” Schultz told me. “But once our brain learns that a doughnut box contains yummy sugar and other carbohydrates, it will start anticipating the sugar high. Our brains will push us toward the box. Then, if we don’t eat the doughnut,

Robert H. Lustig, a professor of pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, is considered the leading authority on the dangers of sugar.

Even though it has less than half the calories of fats, sugar sets off a spike and then a plunge in insulin production, which inspires more cravings for sugar and starches. Before long, our cells no longer respond to insulin, and trouble sets in—diabetes, which ravages the entire body. And