If one nibbles sweet again and again, the concentration of Serotonin, the body’s own luck hormone, increases over a complicated metabolism in the brain. If serotonin drops, this quickly shows up in the psyche – with a bad mood. Automatically, the craving for food increases, which causes the hormone to rise again.
Effects on blood sugar levels
A bag of gummy bears is quickly opened! Also, when you eat sugary foods, blood sugar levels rise quickly, with the pancreas working to produce insulin to bring blood sugar levels back to normal. So a lot of insulin is produced to compensate for the high sugar in the blood, sometimes even too much insulin, with the result that blood sugar levels may slip below normal.
Now the body receives the wrong signal, namely that it needs even more sugar. This, however, increases the craving for sweets. Fruits, vegetables and grains are clearly healthier here.
Vitamins, flavors, colorings.
However, fruit gums also contain vitamins and give them a healthy image. In addition, flavors and colorants are included in varying proportions. And these are critical, according to BfR: Excessive consumption of fortified fruit gums can potentially lead to undesirable health effects.
Manufacturers decide whether and how many vitamins and minerals they add to the sweets. In order for them to be allowed to advertise an addition, these must cover at least 15% of the daily requirement for an adult in 100 g /ml of a food.
However, the reference values for this are not the reference values for nutrient intake of the German Nutrition Society (DGE), but rather the recommendations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (RDA = Recommended Daily Allowances) due to EU law.
The recommendations for children are lower, but are not taken into account. There is a risk of overdosing on individual vitamins or minerals if many fortified foods are consumed.
Risk of vitamin overdose.
Vitamin supplements are anyway dosed higher than indicated in the nutrition label. Only in this way can the appropriate concentration still be guaranteed at the end of the minimum shelf life.
Stiftung Warentest found up to three times the declared content of vitamins. It has not been proven that vitamin supplements are effective at all in terms of disease prevention. Various study results even indicate that the administration of isolated vitamins is more likely to cause harm. Vitamins and minerals still seem to be most effective when taken directly, that is, from fruits or grains directly.
