We’ve all got a sweet tooth, some more than others, but do we really know how much sugar is in these yummy treats and how it’s affecting our brains? According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) the average American eats or drinks roughly 156 pounds of sugar a year. That’s 34 teaspoons of sugars a day, which adds up to 500+ calories. In the United States, over the last two centuries, our sugar intake has increased steadily. With the sugar consumption rise, we saw higher rates of obesity and diabetes. Our sugar intake peaked in 1999 before we started to see a decline, then by 2010, the increase plateaued.

While most of us know that sugars have a negative effect on our heart or waistline, we know far less of its effects on the brain. When our brains are exposed to excessive amounts of sugar it can impair our cognitive skills and our self-control. For many of us having a little amount of sugar stimulates a craving for more. Sugars have a drug-like effect in the reward center of our brain, and scientists propose sweet foods can produce addiction-like effects in the brain. The brain uses more energy than any other organ in our bodies, but excessive sugar throughout the body is harmful. Sugar can impact memory with just a single instance of elevated glucose in the bloodstream, resulting in deficits in memory and attention as well as slowed cognitive function. Even some research suggests that high sugar consumption causes inflammation in the brain, leading to memory difficulties.

A frequently asked question is do our brains need sugar? Your body breaks down the sugar and starchy carbs you consume into glucose and fructose, then the liver processes the fructose for it to be used in the body, but all of the cells in your body use glucose. Our brains use most of the glucose in our bodies for fuel. So to answer that question, yes our brains do need some glucose to function. It’s up to each of us to watch our sugar intake and not let the sugar cravings take control.