For
as long as humans have lived on Earth, they have been eating
foods that taste sweet, such as sugar cane and honey.
So,
the brain has a conditioned response in reaction to eating
something sweet.
It
is called the Cephalic Phase Insulin Response
(CPIR), and it’s responsible for the
fat-storing effects of diet beverages, including diet sodas,
diet tea, coffee, energy drinks, sports drinks, and flavored
waters.
This
adaptation in humans is a reaction to the ingestion of sweet-tasting
foods. The body learned to associate sweet-taste on the
tongue with the resulting sugar-energy-load that landed
in the stomach.
The
brain came to perceive sweet-taste with the need to program
the liver to prepare for the arrival of an outside source
of high energy – sugar.
As
the tongue senses something sweet, it programs the brain
to set into motion a series of biochemical events. It doesn’t
matter if the sweet taste comes from natural honey or from
artificial sweeteners.
This
biochemical cascade triggers the liver to stop the manufacture
of protein and starch from its body-reserves, and to begin
to store the glucose-energy that circulates in the blood.
In
the case of diet beverages, the sweet taste sets these events
into motion.
But
when no calories actually appear in the stomach, this causes
the body to demand real food, with resulting hyper-urges
from the liver to overeat, or to drink more of the sweet-tasting
liquid, and the cascade repeats itself.
Almost
instantly, the body starts producing insulin, the “fat”
hormone, which stores sugar in the blood stream, and programs
the adipose tissue fat cells (belly fat) to store, store,
store.
This
Cephalic Phase Insulin Response (CPIR) creates reactive
hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), which further triggers strong
cravings for more sweet-tasting items, and high glycemic
foods.
After
the taste buds are activated by a sweet-taste, the urge
to ingest food can last from 1 to 2 hours. So, you are hungry
for hours, because no real food or calories has satiated
the body’s need for energy.
And
now, the body is producing insulin for no reason, because
the brain has instructed the liver to store instead of burn/release
its storage supplies.
The
result is fat, fat, fatter - the Cephalic Fat Spiral
