Virtual and real sugar: How do they play with our brains?
In today’s fast-paced world, two things dominate our lives more than ever — sugar and social media. Whether it’s the sweet rush from a dessert or the dopamine hit from Instagram likes, both profoundly impact our brains. Let’s face it, all of us want to have a sweet treat every once in a while and it’s perfectly normal. This becomes a problem when the urge is out of control and we get the treat almost instantly.
You might ask, why should I bother about this being a problem? As long as I can control myself, I’m good, right? I’d say, it depends. Let’s explore how sugar and social media interact with our brain’s reward system, their limits, and why moderation is necessary for both physical and mental well-being.
Sugar, Glucose, and the Brain: A Delicate Balance
You might be surprised to know that the brain is responsible for ~20% of our total energy consumption daily, primarily in the form of glucose. But not all sugars are the same:
1. Natural sugars: They release energy slowly due to fiber and nutrients and do not generally destabilize the blood glucose levels.
2. Added sugars: They flood the bloodstream, spiking the glucose levels since they’re easily decomposable. Additionally, they have been found to activate brain regions associated with reward response and promote intense feelings of hunger. [Link]
The American Heart Association caps added sugar at 25 g/day for women and 38 g/day for men, but the average intake in the US exceeds way beyond these limits. And at this point, I think we’re well aware of the lifestyle effects of having a sugar-rich diet.
Social media: The Virtual Sugar Rush
Social media is ubiquitous these days. From kids to grandparents, almost everyone has one or more accounts that they use on a daily (if not hourly) basis to stay connected with their friends, loved ones, and in general, the world around them. But over the years, it has grown way beyond its inherent purpose to connect people. Ads, provocative images, religious/political propaganda, etc. are just some of the devil’s minions that haunt our lives these days. For this blog, I’ll focus on instant gratification and the cycle of social validation.
The allure of instant gratification
Instant gratification, whether from a sugary snack or social media alike, triggers a rapid release of dopamine in the brain, creating a fleeting sense of pleasure. This immediate reward can lead to a cycle of craving and consumption, as the brain becomes accustomed to quick fixes rather than sustained satisfaction. In the digital realm, platforms like Instagram exploit this tendency with features designed to deliver instant validation, such as likes and comments.
While instant gratification offers temporary highs, it can have profound negative impacts on both physical and mental health. The constant pursuit of quick rewards can erode patience and resilience, leading to a decreased ability to handle stress or delay gratification. On social media, the endless quest for likes can foster anxiety, self-comparison, and a diminished sense of self-worth.
In simple words, if you get what you want without any significant effort, your brain becomes used to such expectations. While this may work for social media or sugary treats, but not for everything else. For instance, if you wish to be a millionaire, it won’t happen instantly. As a result, momentarily, this leads to a sense of sadness because of not getting what you want which causes you to get discouraged and drop the plan.
The Dopamine Cycle of Social Validation
Scenario 1:
Let’s say you decide to go to Hawaii for the weekend. As you plan and think about your trip, your brain is riding on the waves of dopamine due to the anticipation of the rewards you’re about to get shortly. You come back from Hawaii collecting pictures and videos and as soon as you get time, you post them on Instagram. It’s only natural that you expect to see likes and comments from your followers about how great you look in those pictures and that it must have been an amazing experience. Contrary to that, you just get a few likes and no comments at all for almost 2 days. As a result of the expectations getting crushed, you feel sad. And there you are trapped in the cycle of social validation.
While in reality, there’s nothing to be sad about. You had a great time in Hawaii and you should be happy about it. But the unfulfilled expectation of getting validated by the so-called followers made you sad and you probably started wondering, “Why am I not getting any responses? Maybe I don’t look good in those pictures.”
Scenario 2:
You moved to a different city for a new job and you got a new car, the one you always wanted. You’re very happy about it, you go for a long drive and click a few pictures along the way. You come back home and decide to post them on Instagram. But before that, you saw someone else’s picture in a brand-new 2022 BMW M4, and then immediately, you started comparing your car with theirs. You didn’t even bother to think that maybe it’s a rental, they took it for a test drive, or they borrowed it from someone. You ask yourself, “How come they can get such a nice car while I’m not? Maybe I’m not working hard enough or they might be making more money than me.”
Although these are hypothetical scenarios, they are perfectly reasonable in today’s world. We are more concerned with sharing events with others than experiencing the actual happiness associated with those events.
Let’s look at some scientific facts [Source]:
1. Each like or comment triggers a micro-release of dopamine, reinforcing compulsive posting and checking behaviors.
2. Reels deliver rapid visual stimuli processed 65,000 faster than text, creating a cycle where the brain craves more content to sustain pleasure.
3. The amygdala, which processes emotional stimuli, activates weakly compared to real-world interactions, leaving users unsatisfied yet addicted to superficial engagement.
Shared Mechanisms: How Sugar and Social Media Hijack the Brain
Despite sugar and social media being totally 2 different things, they have similar effects on our brains and bodies [Source]:
1. Reward Prediction Error: The brain releases more dopamine when rewards (sugar hits/likes) are unpredictable, fueling compulsive consumption.
2. Tolerance Buildup: Over time, larger “doses” (more sugar or screen time) are needed to achieve the same pleasure.
3. Memory Deficits: Excess glucose disrupts hippocampal function, while social media overuse reduces working memory capacity.
4. Impulse Control: Added sugars diminish prefrontal cortex activity, impairing decision-making — an effect mirrored by Instagram’s distraction-heavy interface.
5. Metabolic Harm: Sugar contributes to obesity and diabetes; social media correlates with sleep disruption and heightened cortisol.
6. Mental Health: Both are linked to depression — sugar via inflammation, and Instagram via social comparison.
If you’ve reached this point in the blog, either you’re with me or you’ve started developing negative feelings against me. Either way, the reality is what it is. The most beautiful and annoying aspect of science is that it's true no matter what we think. I can choose to live in denial that I’m not affected by these things, but I’m as much human as any random stranger, at least biologically.
How do I fix it?
There are ample resources and courses online on time management that talk about reducing screen time and focusing on your goals, so I won’t annoy you with the same crap. But, in my opinion, there are only 2 ways out:
1. Moderation: Use apps or services that can block your access to social media based on a defined time limit. Instead, try to foster in-person interactions and direct messages as opposed to posting online and expecting reactions from random followers (nobody cares about all of them).
2. Elimination: Delete these apps and apply a harsh limit on your added sugar intake. Exercise regularly, listen to podcasts, and build strong relationships with people you actually care about.
Personal anecdote
About 2 years ago, I chose the second option and I swear I’ve never been happier and more focused in my entire life. I started prioritizing things in a way that will gradually allow me to become a better person in different aspects of life. Despite giving up these things, I find my connections to work in the same way as they used to. I communicate with friends and loved ones via calls and DMs and share my moments with them, as opposed to everyone in the world who may or may not care about the importance of the event I just shared with them. Lastly, I’m physically active as well with EXACTLY ZERO sugar cravings.
It can be difficult initially since you’re trying to change your natural tendency and the brain doesn’t like changes in general. But as you keep moving forward, over time, your brain adapts to your new lifestyle and adjusts itself to this “new normal”. After a while, you’ll realize that you’re happier than before and that you’re not focusing on pointless comparisons with someone’s awesome reel life as opposed to their possibly messed-up real life.
It’s been a while since I wrote blogs on Medium but it feels good to restart the process. Thank you for your time. If you find this blog helpful or you feel that this is a legitimate problem, please leave a comment and share it. We can definitely help each other in becoming better human beings. If you find an error, please let me know and I’ll fix it.
Personal portfolio: keshavbagri.in
Appendix: Relevant TEDx talks
- ‘Quit Social Media’ by Dr. Cal Newport
- ‘Is Social Media Hurting Your Mental Health?’ by Bailey Parnell
- ‘The Dark and Light of Social Media’ by Farzana Qasimi
- ‘Live In the Moment: Delete Social Media’ by Ryan Thomas
