how sweet it is

‘The sweet smell of success’, ‘a sweet deal’, ‘ sweeten’ the pot’ and so on. How many familiar phrases such as these do we use to define the good things in our lives? What is it about sugar, in all of its forms, that makes us want to associate in this way? Everyone has heard of a ‘sweet-tooth’ and of course we know that this is a figure of speech, but still the lovely images persists. Then again, ‘the bitter end’, ‘a bitter pill’, ‘bitter winter chill’… quite a different impression, typically harsh or sad, and yet the pair—sweet and bitter—form a partnership that define the way we eat.

The clues lie in our basic physiology, more specifically our brains’ requirement for nutrition and our body’s need for protection. On an instinctual level we have two strong biases: one positive and one negative. The negative is generally represented as the taste of bitter, which perhaps is a defensive measure against some of the toxins that plants can produce. Many times pregnant women will become particularly sensitive to bitter tastes, say in broccoli, which may be nature’s way of protecting the fetus. So we can simplistically see bitter as a protective alarm for our body.

Sweet, on the other hand, is our positive taste impulse. We can even sense it in anticipation of dessert or a piece of fruit. It sates us in bread and even meat we consume. We almost long for it, and with good reason; humans are big-brained omnivores, and big brains require lots of glucose.

On average our brain represents 2% of our total body weight, but consumes a whopping 18% of our energy intake—and here is the kicker: that fuel must be in the form of a carbohydrate (sorry, low-carb dieters!), hence the glucose.



So when you go in blissful anticipation for that piece of cake, remember to tell everyone that what you are really doing is feeding your brain! Now if it was only that easy… well wouldn’t that be sweet?