How To Stop Sugar Cravings

If you ever find yourself spiralling down the slippery slope to candy or sugar addiction, you’re not alone. Many people have an addict like response to sugar. In some of us it elicits a powerful hold, similar to a real drug. Food manufacturers are familiar with this and take great care to provide us with many sugar rich foods (or those with other, just as bad sweeteners).

Not all sugar is bad for you. Fruit, for instance, contain sugar but it is natural. The sugar you should watch out for is the refined sort which is abundant in so many food items.

As someone who wants to lose weight, you’re going to have to deal with your sugar cravings if you’re to have any hope of shedding pounds and keeping them off. In this article, I want to share some of the things that have helped me stop my sugar cravings. I hope that they’ll be just as effective for you.

1. Eat more fruit

You’re not going to eliminate your desire for something sweet in an instant, and perhaps never, but nature has provided us with a healthy alternative to the refined sugar found in candy and milk chocolate: I’m talking about fruit. Not only are they rich in vitamins, fiber, and other healthy elements, they are also sweet. Fruit may not be as sweet as chocolate cake but they won’t make your stomach bulge, either. Have a lot of fruit in your home and take some with you to work. The next time you crave something sweet, eat some fruit.

2. Use healthier Sweeteners

In another class of healthy alternatives to refined sugar are some are healthier sources of sweetness. These include stevia which is a sweetener that many experts recommend, dark chocolate (above 70% cocoa conten) which contains a lot of antioxidants and may even help to protect your teeth, and raw honey, which I personally use to sweeten my tea. As you can see, needing to get something sweet doesn’t always mean needing to consume refined sugar.

3. Don’t go hungry

Going hungry is an invitation to have cravings. When you’re hungry you’re more likely to turn to bad food just to fill your stomach. You will likely regret eating this bad food later on but the damage will be done. What you should do is eat a small meal or snack every 3 hours or so. This way you won’t feel too hungry and will be better able to resist cravings.

4. Clear your kitchen

Before you do battle, you need to choose the best battleground. In your case, this is your kitchen where you keep your food supplies. If your kitchen is full of cupcakes, milk chocolate, candy bars, and other sugar rich foods, you’re going to have a hard time stopping your sugar cravings. The sugar will be so easy to get to that the temptation will be massive. Clear out your kitchen and stock healthy foods. Make it harder for you to choose the wrong items.

5. Exercise

I’m not just talking about exercising regularly, which I find is one of the best ways to avoid eating poorly in general. I’m talking about doing a little physical activity whenever you feel like grabbing a bite of something you shouldn’t. I’m not sure why this works but whenever I workout, I don’t feel like eating anything too sweet afterwards.

6. Eat more high satiety foods

To keep yourself fool and avoid cravings, you should eat more foods that keep you full. These are known as high satiety foods. These include foods rich in fiber, protein, and healthy fats.

7. Don’t go Cold Turkey

By reading this article you may thing that to stop sugar cravings you need to go Cold Turkey. On the contrary, I want you to indulge yourself in your favorite foods even if they include high sugar items. I just want you to do so in moderation. Eating the foods you love is part of enjoying life and can actually help you lose weight and keep it off. Plans such as Cheat Your Way Thin are actually based on ocassional Cheating days in which you can eat “undietary” foods including those high in sugar. I recommend not doing so more than once per week or on special ocassions.

In Conclusion

Use the above tips to reduce your sugar cravings and you will see how this affects your weight. Simply by reducing the amount of sugar that you consume you can drop pounds quickly and with very little effort.