This Is Your Brain On Sugar | Amy Reichelt | TEDxYouth@Sydney

As a neuroscientist, Amy is fascinated with how our brains control our behaviours in our dynamic and changing world. Things we eat, like junk food also affect our brain. Dopamine is released when we eat junk foods, this makes us feel good and crave more, but we risk becoming sugar dependant.

Amy is an Australian Research Council Research Fellow and lecturer at RMIT University. Her research seeks to explore how the brain controls our behaviour and understanding the mechanisms by which our experiences in the environment can shape our responses to events.

A major focus of her research is how our modern day diets full of soft drinks and junk foods can change our brains besides just making us overweight. Our brains not only make us want to eat more of these foods, but these foods are damaging areas critical for forming memories and behavioural control.

Amy tries to explain these neuroscience discoveries on radio, TV and print, as well as to general audiences at scientific communication events such as National Science Week.

[EmmalynnCynefin]

And for people who argue that it's expensive, even though I can argue how it's now, just think about this:
"Pay the farmer now, or pay the doctor later" -Emily Fletcher

[amituniyal]

I will also stop sugar from today... God plz grant me and others the power to live without processed sugar for healthy mind!!! Amen

[elosmilealways]

for those body shaming her. let's remember she's a neuroscientist not a fitness instructor. Let people live.

[jamesgarza]

I was just on my way to McDonald's because I was craving it. And then u mentioned avocados and omega then I remembered why I started my weight loss journey in the first place. Thank you

[pathwaystarot]

I love the science and evidence here. It's absolutely indisputable. However, I disagree that junk foods should be treated as rewards. Definitely as occasional foods, but surely treating them as rewards strengthens the addiction to them as our body links them to feeling good?

[cynthiawhitney]

Been off sugar for 1 month and I've never felt healthier in my life.

[patty]

I agreed for what she said in the whole video but in the end, in her last words she told something really wrong and confirming how we'll never get out from this vicious circle if we keep thinking like this...
That we should treat junk food only as a reward. And now I'm asking you (I've read in another social this same simple question and it literally opened my mind like a big life' reveal)"Why do you have to consider a reward something it's literally killing you?
For me was more: Why should I consider junk food a reward when it was leading me straight to diabetes? Meditate folks 😊

[mckohtz]

Sugar is like alcohol. Some people can stop at just one. Many people cannot and need to abstain from it.

[ndjubilant]

Thank you so much for your talk :) May we all recover from sugar addiction, overeating, undereating, anorexia, bulimia, , bulamorexia, orthorexia, bigorexia and any other eating disorder as well as overweight and obesity. We CAN do this. Together we are stronger and healthier

[rajx]

Great talk. Brain damage scares me - I don't want to live below my true potential, have problems performing in my job, or grow old and get alzheimer's disease. Really good to keep in mind the kind of lasting damage eating junk can cause - health is not just about a number on the scale which gives you the artificial impression that you can always "undo" bad eating by just losing some weight after you gain it. You can't.

[Zoe-drps]

Nothing tastes as good as being anxiety free. I won't go back to sugar ever.

[yellowbird]

Going shopping in a major supermarket when you are on a health journey for unadulterated foods reminds me of those little brain challenges of "can you find the rabbits hidden in this picture?" After we have found maybe half of them, (food in a produce section and meat counter) we have to look harder, (by reading labels in canned, frozen and packaged goods). We might still be missing some. The food industry puts us through an obstacle course the minute we walk through the door. Junk food is interspersed throughout the apple display (caramel coating kits, apple pie crusts) all through the veggies (sour cream dips, bacon sprinkles, vegetable snacks) and through the cheese and meat aisles (instant pizza dough, cheese in a can, chili mixes loaded in sugar, white flour buns). We are stalked at the end of each aisle with cake mixes, refined oil, snacks, cereals and candy. They say to shop on the perimeter of a store to avoid all the tainted food in the middle of the store, but they are two steps ahead of us. Even in a health food store they do it. To stay healthy, you must be selective in your viewing, eat before shopping or going to a place that will sabotage your good intentions. It's everywhere.

[davidwilson]

I quit most sugar 3 weeks ago... I should have done it 25 years ago. My productivity has skyrocketed! I really can't believe how my focus has improved. I know everyone isn't the same... but if your focus improves 1/3 as much as mine has, it'll be worth it. Since I was a kid, I've eaten candy bars and/or big bags of gummies, nearly every day. Seems pretty harmless, but over the span of 30 years, your mind/body starts to fail on several fronts. I'd had brain fog for perhaps 10 years it seems... Unreal.

If you don't believe me, try sugar fasting for 2 weeks. Into the 2nd week you may feel a little down, but after week 2 your mind will pep WAY up, and you'll just be extremely energetic... an engaged focused kind of energetic.

[lloydaran]

I disagree with the conclusion: we should not treat junk food as a "reward". This implies that everything else you eat isn't as tasty and that you avoid junk food only because you should, instead of doing it because you want. That's not going to last. The key here is to find healthy foods which you enjoy eating. Believe me, there are plenty and there are many ways to prepare them to make them even tastier. Once you find healthy foods you like and start having them consistently, you will find yourself instinctively - not forcedly - avoiding junk food.

[lynbob]

Great talk. I'm desperately trying to get me and my teenagers off sugar. I have even more of a reason. Trying to be healthy in the west is so difficult sugar is everywhere.

[nederhood]

It's not the brain that controls our behavior; It's what we eat. What we eat controls the brain.

[raystaar]

It's hard to resist, perhaps, but not impossible. Better to give it a pass. I have, since March 2016. I feel so much better.

[razif]

Best thing ever happen to me..Stopped eating sugar/Junk/Fast foods..Started IFast OMAD..And dont even care for cheat/comfort days.

[lisa]

That is illuminating! I don't mind her use of rewards, I'm trying really hard to abstain from sugary/sweet foods but it's not possible 100% of the time. I'm interpreting it to mean one-offs or very infrequent rather than I've done something good here's my reward. It's my Dad's 80th in a couple of weeks and there will be birthday cake so sure letting myself have that. But I'm not having a cake every day I think is the point!

[RazaKhan-csqb]

Excellent point. Treating junk food as a reward, just like our brain treats them, as opposed to a major part of our diet.