Picture cookies, candies, cakes, Kheer, Halwa, Rabdi, Gulab Jamun,your favorite ice cream,favorite fruit;Imagine you eating them and cherishing its taste!

Is something happening within your mouth, does it getting watery, do you now crave for it ? Most of the people who like to have sweets at least once in a day would know what i am talking about. Do you drink hot beverages like tea, coffee, milk? Do you drink it with sugar or without it ? Have you ever wondered what is it that exactly make you have these drinks? Is it caffeine alone or you love the taste of sugar in it too ? Most of us will say both!

Why is it harder to avoid sugar than spicy food items? Why do we get habitual to sweet food items easily as compared to the spicy or salty items?

Researchers have been studying the impact of sugar on our body and mind since many centuries. Sugar not only adds to the fat level in our body but it is actually a drug which gives you energy spikes in short duration but dizziness for a longer time.

Let us first understand what sugar is!  Sugar is a carbohydrate that is found throughout our common foods and drinks. Glucose, sucrose, lactose, fructose, dextrose and even starch such as potato or corns are different types or forms of sugar.

So what happens when we eat a mouthful of sugary items? Firstly, the sweet taste buds on our tongue gets alert quickly.

This sends a signal to our brain and to the cerebral cortex, which is the region that analyzes all our tastes. The cerebral cortex send signal to the brain's reward system to answer a simple question for our body - “should I do that again?” And the brain says “YES”. A single piece of sugary food item is never enough to satisfy us and hence  we tend to have a series of such food items.

The crucial booster of brain’s reward system is dopamine, a neuro-transmitter, known as happy hormone that spikes when, we do things that we enjoy and, if we get too much of it, it can lead to addiction and our body craves for more.

Fortunately, sugar doesn't lead to dopamine spikes as intensively as drugs, but it does cause a unique effect.

This explains why we can eat the same sugary item day after day without getting bore. The brain reacts in a same way when person is under the influence of substance abuse.

When we have consume too much of sugar over a long period of time, just like drugs, it triggers a vicious series of events in our brain that lead to cravings, loss of control.

We all know the impact of over-dosage of sugar on our body such as diabetes, fat gain, risk of cancer, addiction, rise in cholesterol level etc. This is the reason why sweet items used to be made on the special occasions such as festival or celebrations. They are never meant to be a part of our daily diet.

Be aware of this addiction. It is a drug available everywhere and is legal too.

Have a safe food!