If you’ve found that munching sugary snacks just makes you crave more sugary snacks, you’re not alone. Eating lots of simple carbohydrates — without the backup of proteins or fats — can quickly satisfy hunger and give your body a short-term energy boost, but they almost as quickly leave you famished again and craving more.
Why Do We Crave Sugar?
There are many reasons why we go for sweet things.
That appetite may be hardwired. “Sweet is the first taste humans prefer from birth,” says, a dietitian from American Dietetic Association (ADA). Carbohydrates stimulate the release of the feel-good brain chemical serotonin. Sugar is a carbohydrate, but carbohydrates come in other forms, too, such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
Sweets just taste good, too. And that preference gets reinforced by rewarding ourselves with sweet treats, which can make you crave it even more. With all that going for it, why wouldn’t we crave sugar?
The problem comes not when we indulge in a sweet treat now and then, but when we over-consume, something that’s easy to do when sugar is added to many processed foods, including breads, yogurt, juices, and sauces.
5 Steps to Kick Sugar Addiction
Here are the top ways to reduce sugar cravings. There are really four main steps. You need to get more fiber, more protein, more healthy fat and consume sour foods. If you follow those steps, and a fifth one we’ll add here, those things will help you overcome your sweet addiction and sugar cravings.
1. Get more protein in your diet
Protein actually will help balance out blood sugar and so that really helps reduce sugar cravings. That really is the biggest reason there. Some of the best protein foods out there to help kick sugar addiction include.
2. Consume more healthy fats
Your body can burn sugar for energy or fat for energy. If you stop consuming as much sugar, start consuming more fat. Just make sure it’s healthy fats, the kind common in the Mediterranean diet. Your body will become a fat burner, which will also help weight loss, but that will actually help kick sugar addiction. The best fat for that is actually coconut or coconut oil.
3. Get more fiber
Fiber helps you stay fuller longer. It also supports detoxification and can reduce candida symptoms in your body. Candida is a major cause of sugar cravings.Start consuming more high-fiber foods, especially vegetables and nuts and seeds, like chia seeds and flaxseeds.
4. Consume more sour or probiotic-rich foods
Things like probiotic yogurt and kefir are, in fact, sour because of the good bacteria found in them. They fight off and reduce candida in your body, which is why you reduce sugar cravings.
So again, consuming probiotic-rich foods, like kefir and yogurt, fermented vegetables like sauerkraut and kimchi, and also sour foods like apple cider vinegar is fantastic. Using apple cider vinegar on a salad or apple cider vinegar and lemon juice in your water throughout the day can decrease your sugar cravings.
5. Switch to stevia
Stevia is a no-calorie, natural sweetener that makes good sugar alternatives to overcome those cravings temporarily.
Best Sugar Alternatives
Another way to curb your sugar cravings and recover from a sugar addiction is to use healthy sugar alternatives. Try these sugar substitutes instead.
When you stop eating sugar altogether, however, your body goes through withdrawal, and it’s not pleasant for your body or your brain.
Eliminating sugar from your diet can improve the overall quality of your sleep in the long run
Breaking up with sugar won’t solve your sleep problems overnight, but in a few weeks time you should notice yourself falling into a deeper sleep, Glatter said. This is because foods containing high amounts of refined sugars reduce the degree of slow wave sleep (SWS), the restorative sleep that consolidates memories and information learned throughout the day, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the dream phase.