logo
logo
Sign in

Why Do Humans Crave Sugary Foods? Shouldn't Evolution Lead Us To Crave Healthy Foods?

avatar
Thornie Longmuir
Why Do Humans Crave Sugary Foods? Shouldn't Evolution Lead Us To Crave Healthy Foods?

Sugar is a soluble carbohydrate that is naturally found in several fruits and vegetables. Our body breaks down these carbohydrates into glucose and fructose and utilizes them as an energy source (Sissons). Not only that, it helps us store fat as well. Richard Johnson explains, in prehistoric times when food was scarce, storing fat was an advantage and not a health risk. He further claims that a mutation happened millions of years prior as a result of famine, increasing the early humans’ sensitivity to fructose in such a way that even modest quantities were stored as fats for future use (Spector). Simply put, early primates evolved to crave fruits as a survival mechanism because fruits contain more sugar, which is a better source of energy, as compared to vegetables (Baird).

In the modern era, as technology developed, so did our convenience. Now we can grow fruits affordably and extract sugar with ease. The instinctive longing for sugar still exists; however, access to sugary foods is not an issue. This ease of access gives rise to overconsumption of such foods, which further leads to sugar cravings (Baird). 

A few researchers even claim that sugar has addictive properties as it shows comparable effects (Avena et al). In fact, quickly removing it from the diet can have side effects similar to withdrawal symptoms, which includes nausea, headache, anxiety and depression (Seidenberg). No wonder we can’t control the sugar craving.

Moreover, some cravings develop not from the stomach but the brain. Sometimes we experience cravings out of boredom or habits, such as eating a pie even when we are not hungry or overeating chocolates to combat stress (Seidenberg). 

Several published studies claim that sugar stimulates the chemical dopamine, which is also known as a “happy hormone”, leading us to crave them more often when dopamine levels are low (Avena et al; Rooney).

According to American Heart Association, our bodies don’t need added sugars to function properly (Sugar 101). Moreover, eating too much sugar is known to cause diseases such as diabetes, obesity, etc. On the other hand, sugar is quite healthy if consumed modestly in its natural form (Baird). 

Now, this brings us to the main question, “if too much sugar is unhealthy, then why haven’t we evolved to crave healthy food over sugar?” We can only speculate. What we know is that genetic evolution in humans is a lengthy process that can take up many generations as humans are still evolving. However, people have been producing sugary foods for only a couple of hundred years, which might not be significant for a transformative change (Baird).

Conclusion

According to the arguments presented, the thesis statement holds. Early humans evolved to crave fruits as a survival mechanism, but now it has turned into something different. In the modern era, humans crave sugary foods because of their habits, convenience, and maybe to deal with stress or depression. We are at a point where eating sugar is considered an addiction rather than a survival source, and maybe we can blame our hormones for that. Considering everything, it may take a while for evolution to take place in this aspect. Since overindulging in sugar is known to cause several diseases, which further leads to premature death, humans will likely be selected against it in the coming century.

The article was written using the service Homeworkhave.com.

collect
0
avatar
Thornie Longmuir
guide
Zupyak is the world’s largest content marketing community, with over 400 000 members and 3 million articles. Explore and get your content discovered.
Read more