March began with a lovely dinner party where I served pizza, roast potatoes and a berry meringue pie. We ate at 6 p.m. which is outside my usual eating window and I ate moderately, but the carbohydrate load gave me what I can only describe as a carbohydrate high. I almost felt as if I had drunk alcohol. And I noticed how hard it was to stop eating those potatoes and how compelling the sweet pudding was especially the custard.

Here is the science behind that pull. The brain is intensely glucose-dependent and refined carbohydrates restore brain glucose very quickly producing an almost immediate sense of relief and pleasure. Carbohydrates also trigger an insulin response that opens the fast lane to the brain for tryptophan, which converts to serotonin our mood stabiliser. Then comes the dopamine reward loop. Sugar and highly refined carbohydrates produce a mild opioid release from the body. It is, quite literally, self-medication through food.  No wonder we get hooked on this. 

This is not weakness. This is not lack of willpower. This is a very well-designed brain doing what it was made to do. I am not going to moralise over a fun evening. But there is  learning in this and the next day I naturally moved back toward plainer, calmer food, and the metabolic switch did its work.

Jo shares learning like this in her On the RAFT diary, available to members of the Foodsane community. Members also get access to the eating window and mood tracker, community chat, monthly Zoom meetings and free training. Membership is £10/month with no contract.