Food cravings, it seems, are caused by the biological properties of particular foods... certain foods have something in their chemical composition that makes us crave them in much the same way as an addict craves alcohol, drugs or tobacco.

For people who smoke cigarettes, nicotine causes dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, to be released. Something similar happens when you eat sugar, chocolate or cheese.

These three foods are not, of course, as addictive as tobacco or recreational drugs. But the same chemistry of addiction seems to be at work with these foods.

Sugar

When a person has overdosed on heroin and is comatose, doctors inject Naloxone Market size. This medication prevents the heroin from attaching to receptors in the brain and the patient usually recovers quickly.

In controlled studies, researchers have offered volunteers sugary foods and have recorded how much they ate. Then at a later time, under the same conditions, they have given the same volunteers naloxone intravenously and then offered them the same sugary foods.

Naloxone causes a significant drop in the desire for sweet foods. This suggests strongly that sugar affects the brain in essentially the same way as heroin and other opiates, though obviously not to the same degree. This mild drug-like effect is most clearly seen in foods that contain both sugar and fat, such as cakes, biscuits (cookies) and full-fat ice cream.

Though it is not an opiate, these experiments show that sugar stimulates the release of opiates within the brain and these opiates, in turn, trigger the release of dopamine which generates feelings of pleasure... in much the same way as recreational drugs such as alcohol, cocaine, and tobacco.

The craving for sugar goes beyond sugar itself and can appear as a craving for foods that release sugar into the bloodstream quickly (foods with a high glycemic index value or GI)... such as biscuits, crackers, white bread and potatoes.

So what's the solution?

The best thing to do with a sweet tooth is, in my view, to have it pulled. This is what I did and I did not find the process of giving up sugar in my tea and coffee especially difficult.

For those who find giving up sugar difficult, substitutes are available.

You can replace white table sugar in recipes with maple or other syrups and sugarcane juices, all of which taste much sweeter - this reduces the amount of sugar you take in but only marginally.

Low-calorie sweeteners are used in some manufactured desserts, sweets (candies) and chewing gum - these have about half the calories of regular white sugar (check the labels).

There are several no-calories sweeteners you can use in your tea or coffee.

The big disadvantage of substitutes for sugar is that they do not break the sweet tooth habit... so, when the substitutes are not available you'll go back to using sugar... which is why I recommend that you do not use substitutes. It's far better to have your sweet tooth pulled.

Chocolate

Eating more than one small piece of dark chocolate a day is bad for you... not only does it contain loads of sugar, it is full of fat, so for a diabetic it is doubly dangerous.