Do you have frequent sugar cravings and want to stop them? Sugar cravings are a small phase when our brain tells us to eat sweet things. According to researchers, the taste of sweetness is the first thing we remember since our birth.
Sometimes, we crave to eat something sweet instantly, which is called a sugar craving, and if you want to stop it, this article is going to help you a lot in the matter.
Overview Of Sugar Cravings
A carbohydrate like sugar is healthy for your body only if it’s taken within limits. It is necessary to consume some sort of sugary item every day to maintain the blood sugar level. Increasing the intake will result in a spike in blood glucose levels. These sugar cravings are the reason you eat more sweets and sugary foods excessively.
Also Check: What Is Normal Blood Sugar? Everything You Need To Know!
Causes Of Sugar Cravings
Before learning about prevention, you must know the reasons that make you want to eat more sugar. These causes are all physically related to your diet and lifestyle choices, so get a hold of those things, and you are good to go. Anyway, here are the reasons you get sudden sugar cravings:
🔸 Poor Diet
When your meals are mostly filled with unhealthy and sweet things, there is a high chance you’ll develop a sweet addiction. Your body needs carbohydrates to maintain energy levels, as sugar is also a carbohydrate, and it’s sweet; your brain gets addicted to it. When you start to consume less sugar for a period of time, your brain gets a sugar detox.
🔸 Dehydration
When you are dehydrated, your organs, like the liver, start to release glycogen (stored glucose) and other stored components using water. This makes you crave more sugar. So next time, if you get the urge to eat sugar, just drink water instead; you might be dehydrated.
🔸 Stress
When you get stressed, the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenaline (HPA) is part of your brain that responds to and tackles your stress. Sugar tends to weaken that part of your brain and make you feel less stressed. The more you get stressed, the more you’ll crave sugar if you get addicted, so try to be stress-free.
🔸 Lack Of Magnesium
Lack of some minerals like Mg (magnesium) causes these cravings, as it helps regulate blood sugar levels and supply energy to the cells. If you lack magnesium in your body, opt for food items like dark chocolate, nuts like almonds, and bananas.
Activities To Stop Sugar Cravings Instantly
Feeling an urge to consume sugary items will never go away. It is up to us to manage those urges. One can rarely be assured of measurements taken to prevent sugar cravings, so if you get one of these cravings, these activities will make sure you are not consuming excess sugar.
✅ Distract Yourself
When you get an unavoidable urge to eat sweet things, you can distract yourself from the feeling with many things, such as counting numbers, talking to your friends, doing exercise, and other physical activities.
✅ Drink More Water
Water helps our organs, like the liver, maintain our blood sugar levels and provide energy to the cells. When you start drinking more water, the urge to eat disappears on its own.
✅ Take A Bite
You can give in to your cravings a little by eating or taking a little bite of sweets to end the urge. This can reprogram your brain to satisfy the little amount of sugar you are taking.
✅ Eat Other Things Instead
Opt for food items such as almonds, chia seeds, apricots, dark chocolates, or green leafy vegetables. These are some food items that are proven to reduce a person’s urge to eat sweet things.
✅ Cook Your Favorites
Sugar triggers your brain’s reward system, and it gets addicted to that easy reward, which leads to overeating and sugar addictions. The same reward system activates in your brain when you eat your favorite meals or food items, so cook your favorites and dig in.
Read More: Is Allulose Good For You? Will It Be The Next Sugar Substitute?
Conclusion
Feeling the need to consume more sugar varies from person to person, but one thing that remains the same for everyone is how they tackle the problem. When you start doing activities and following certain rules to get your lifestyle in line, then a sugar craving is the least of your concerns.
