Ready to tackle that sweet tooth?
Do you often have sugar cravings and just can’t seem to get rid of them, no matter how hard you try?
And do you feel that, if only you had more self-discipline, you could finally stop your body craving sugar and kick it out for good?
Well, what if we tell you that
Sugar cravings usually have less to do with willpower and much more to do with nutrient and biochemical imbalances in the body.
And once you manage to address these, your cravings will disappear pretty quickly too.
For example, the stability of your blood sugar, the presence of certain nutrients and the state of your gut health all have a massive impact on what foods you tend to crave.
The good news is, that all of these can be optimised through simple changes in what and how you eat!
Here are 3 tips to get you started and help you make sugar cravings a thing of the past!
(1) DON’T SKIP MEALS
If you are constantly craving sugar, this may be driven by your unstable blood sugar. Our blood sugar levels fluctuate throughout the day depending on a number of factors, including what we eat. But when this movement is too radical, and the blood sugar keeps jumping out of the range that the body considers normal, we experience intense sugar cravings, as well as low energy and mood swings.
There are a few different ways of stabilising your blood sugar, but one of the most important ones is to
keep a regular meal schedule and not skip meals.
For example, if you tend to have breakfast at 7am, try to keep it at this time every day and don’t skip it or “save yourself” because you know you will be having a big lunch with a friend. If you do, you are much more likely to get the nibbles for that mid-morning chocolate bar or overeat at lunch - all because you missed the breakfast and your blood sugar for a moment fell of the wagon.
(2) INCLUDE PROTEIN & HEALTHY FATS IN EVERY MEAL
You will further help to stabilise your blood sugar if you make sure that every meal you eat contains a good amount of protein and healthy fats.
Both of these nutrients slow down the release of glucose in the blood, which reduces the likelihood of sugar cravings.
Good sources of protein include meat, fish, dairy and eggs as well as plant-based foods like nuts, seeds, quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth and beans and pulses.
Nuts, seeds fish and eggs will also provide you with plenty of healthy fat, or alternatively you can add in a bit virgin olive oil or avocado to make sure you are getting in enough of these fats.
(3) EAT PLENTY OF MAGNESIUM-RICH FOODS
Magnesium deficiency is one of the main causes of sugar cravings so making sure that you include in your daily diet plenty of magnesium rich-foods will help you keep those cravings at bay.
Some of the best sources of magnesium include nuts such as almonds, dark green leafy veggies (e.g. spinach), sunflower and pumpkin seeds, chick-peas, avocado, salmon, beans, brown rice and bananas.
Including these foods in several meals every day will help you tackle your sweet tooth, improve energy and support your bone health, due to the key role that magnesium plays in all of these aspects of our health.
