How To Control Sugar Cravings
Sugar cravings can strike whether you are hungry or have a full stomach and the key to overcoming them is knowing how to control them when they arrive. Once sugar cravings appear the outcome can be drastic. If you are unprepared and unaware of how to deal with them in a healthy way then you could end up eating enough to make you feel guilty afterwards. A little sweet can quickly turn into multiple pieces of cake and several scoops of ice cream.
Why the Body Craves Sugar
The Alternatives to Sugar
Why the Body Craves Sugar
- Have you ever had those sugar cravings immediately after a particularly salty meal? That is the brain actually tricking itself into thinking it needs the sugar because of the high salt intake that the body was just fed. Sugar cravings happen for other reasons as well. Inadequate levels of serotonin in the brain and clinical depression can add to the brain thinking it needs sugar to "brighten" the mood.
- The problem is that sugar is full of many, unneeded calories and has no nutritional value whatsoever. In many cases the sweets, candies and creams that contain the sugar are also packed with unhealthy trans-fats.
The Alternatives to Sugar
- Controlling sugar cravings is possible with just a little discipline. You just have to make sure that you are reaching for the right kinds of food to help strengthen your defenses. Different types of fruit dishes can substitute as a healthy alternative and help to control the sugar cravings.
- To improve the brain's mood and to pump up the levels of serotonin just go get some exercise. Going for a walk, a run, or whatever workout regimen you usually partake in can quickly pump up the brain into a better mood. Do not, however, use the exercise that you just completed as an "OK" to partake in sweet snacks!
- Keep your meals simple but don't skip them. Hunger can intensify the cravings and make you more susceptible to a slip up.
- And lastly, avoid keeping snacks and food with a high sugar content in your home. The key is to control the cravings with healthy foods and an active lifestyle.
- Next time you crave a sweetened ice tea or the like, see if a little SweetLeaf Liquid Stevia might fit the bill instead. Stevia sweetener is a 100% natural sweetener derived from the stevia plant, an herb native to Paraguay. Try the different flavours and add them to your water, tea, coffee, milk, sparkling water, protein shakes, plain yogurt or anything else you can imagine.