Diet Series: How to Stop Sugar Cravings?

Why is it Hard to Stop Sugar?

Sugar is addic­tive. Sugar addic­tion and drug addic­tion almost no dif­fer­ence. Let’s stop all of a sud­den intake of sugar. We will feel sim­i­lar symp­toms off med­ica­tion (with­drawal symp­tomps) as lethar­gic, depres­sion, mood dis­or­ders, headaches, and joint pains. This may explain why stop­ping sugar as dif­fi­cult as stop­ping drug.

A study has also shown that there are link­ages between the sugar and phys­i­o­log­i­cal depen­dence on sugar. Sweet food will lead to an increase sere­tonin, a brain chem­i­cal that con­trols mood. Ade­quacy of sero­tonin in nerve cells help main­tain the mood and con­trol appetite. Mean­while, if the low sero­tonin lev­els, we will expe­ri­ence depres­sion and appetite con­trol (food Craving).

Sugar Cube

More­over, with­out the help of glu­cose, tryp­to­phan, the amino acid for­ma­tion of sero­tonin can not enter the brain cells. So when sero­tonin lev­els fall, tryp­to­phan will require sweet foods to improve the situation.

Other hor­mones, endor­phins are also impli­cated in exces­sive appetite. Sweet foods can trig­ger the release of endor­phins, the brain’s nat­ural nar­cotics that help give a sense of com­fort when we’re stressed.

In addi­tion to sero­tonin and endor­phins, there is another brain chem­i­cal that is neu­ropep­tides Y (NPY) that affect our desire to eat that are not con­trolled. This brain chem­i­cal duty to check whether our bod­ies (espe­cially the brain) is get­ting enough car­bo­hy­drates glu­cose for energy. Once deposit of sugar run out in the body, blood sugar will drop and trig­ger the release of NPY, which will encour­age the brain to ask for more sugar again.

This cycle will be repeated on; more and more sugar or sweet foods we eat, the less effec­tively improve mood. Thus, we will eat more sugar or sweet foods in end­less cir­cles. The habit of eat­ing sugar every day will be led to phys­i­cal symp­toms when the sugar off the drug elim­i­nated in the diet daily.

So, Here is the Solu­tion to Stop Your Sugar Craving?

1. Get rid of any­thing sweet in your house: It’s hard to do, but if you want to stop the sugar addic­tion, you must remove the sweet foods in your house.
2. Find Sugar Free Prod­ucts : Many foods are now labeled “sugar free”, “diet”, or “no added sugar”. Pur­chase the prod­ucts of this type from now. Arti­fi­cial sweet­en­ers because they are not nec­es­sar­ily good for your body, the prod­uct “Sugar Free” can help you grad­u­ally wean your­self from sugar.
3. Switch to whole grains: Grains can be processed into sugar by your body — which means they can have the same impact to you as you eat sugar. Car­bo­hy­drates are not the enemy of course — it is car­bo­hy­drates that are not intact seeds that can pre­vent the progress of your weight! You can switch to wheat bread, rice, wheat, pasta wheat, and many more. If you do not like it at first, grad­u­ally will try half and half.
4. Drink lot of water: If you are a sugar addict, so maybe you do not drink enough water. Drink at least 3 glasses of water every day with­out sweet­en­ers or seasonings.
5. Eat lots of Veg­eta­bles: The more you eat veg­eta­bles, the less likely you’ll be tempted to eat sweet foods. This also will help you long enough to hope­fully get through the desire of sugar.
6. Exer­cise: Exer­cise will make you health­ier and stronger. If you are strong and healthy, the eas­ier it is for against lust. Also can help reduce stress or bore­dom that may cause you to eat sugar again.
7. Get enough rest: Sugar affect blood sugar lev­els, which affects your energy level. If you are not get­ting enough sleep, try to make it so you go to bed at the same time every night and wake up same time every morn­ing. This will make you less likely to reach the candy the next time you feel tired because you know need a boost.