Question: why do we sometimes eat and yet still wants something more to eat(like we can't stop eating)

Jen Todd Jones answered on 12 Mar 2013:

Hi Miranda

This is usually to do with the food we’re eating and the brain’s reaction to it. Lots of foods nowadays don’t contain actual sugar (like the kind you spoon into tea), they contain a substitute for sugar called sacharine – this is a chemically made kind of sugar that tastes exactly like sugar but is much less expensive to put in foods (and it’s in lots of foods, not just chocolate or crisps, but drinks, microwave dinners, cereals, lots!). While sacharine tastes just like sugar it doesn’t give us the same energy in calories that sugar does, so our body gets confused. When we eat sacharine the body thinks it’s getting sugar and a big energy boost in calories, but it doesn’t get that energy boost because there is no energy in sacharine – so what do you think it does? It asks for more! The brain is confused and all it knows is it’s been cheated out of some energy and it needs more of it.

You can avoid this feeling by eating real sugars, that are normally found in fruit and vegetables. These are natural foods for your body and although they can seem a bit dull they really are better for you 😉 If you stopped eating chocolate it would take a while for your body and brain to adjust to not feeling hungry after a meal, it doesn’t change just because you eat one apple unfortunately!