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Notes -
That blood sugar level spike is the glycemic index. I believe most people would benefit by eating more foods that are lower glycemic index. Which approximates to the obvious advice of avoiding simple carbs, but with some counterintuitive foods that are surprisingly high or low. Sweet fruits that don't spike your blood sugar that much, etc.
That blood sugar spike and following crash is not good for our moods or satiation. And also makes your body release lots of insulin.
And I hope this is real rather than yet another fake understanding of nutrition from the raggedy and untrustworthy discipline of nutrition science.
There was a flurry of activity trying to make glycemic index do a bunch of things. I don't recall much conclusive coming out of it. For particular questions of addiction/rewards pathways, I don't think the work really got very far out of the stage of some basic theoretical mechanism conjectures. I also haven't followed up enough to see if any of them were busted by empirics.
FWIW, when I lost my weight, many years ago, I did so by following the "GI Diet" which basically recommends you eat mostly low-GI foods. The theory being that it would reduce sugar spikes and regulate your metabolism. Of course it also just happens to mean you are eating mostly lower carb and low sugar foods, and to some degree I suspect any reasonably healthy diet combined with exercise will work.
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