Oh go on then, just a small one

Ongoing research is strongly suggesting that we may not be entirely to blame ourselves for taking that extra portion of dessert after a rounded and amply voluminous meal, while our inner self is suggesting that we really shouldn’t. We can blame our neurology!

Neurons located in the brain region that regulates metabolism and appetite produce opioids that also control your feeling of satiety after eating. Yet these very same opioids are now also believed to be responsible for the spectre of the sugar craving that emerges even after one has been (more than) sufficiently fed.

This brain region particularly sends sugar-craving signals to receptors in a part of the brain called the thalamus in a state of satiety, making that choccy pud seem even more tempting. It is now being strongly mooted that the communication pathway between these parts of the brain may have evolved because of how much more easily sugar is turned into energy than fat or protein.

So maybe we can flay ourselves a little more gently when those feelings of guilt set in after that slight excess at the table. It’s not me you see, it’s the neurons.