Beating sugar cravings is one of the main reasons I wanted to complete a Whole 30 – to attempt to break that emotional tie with food. Sugar cravings have always been my downfall, I’ll pass up a pie in favour of a slice of cake any day of the week.
I’m not sure if it’s true or not but I always feel like females get more sugar cravings than males. It could be something to do with that time of the month, or the fact that we are notoriously more emotional and therefore more likely to emotional eat? I’m not sure – If you’re a male and reading this and get ridiculous sugar cravings please do let me know!
What are sugar cravings and why do they occur?
Sugar cravings are this indescribable urge to eat something sweet, and you feel as though you must eat it RIGHT NOW! Yeah you know what I’m talking about!
Some people find they do not crave sugar much (LUCKY!) and others find their sugar cravings are often in overdrive. Often this is due to an emotional factor or perhaps that we are not getting enough sleep (I know I find it harder to control my sugar cravings when I’ve had a crap sleep!).
One of the best things you can do to help beat your sugar cravings is to NOT GIVE IN to them and to get past the cravings. Once your body is used to you doing this it will slowly begin not to crave the sweet foods. This is all well and good however I know how hard it is beating sugar cravings.
The first thing I would do in beating sugar cravings is to take a look at my current diet and see how often processed foods are sneaking in to my diet. Generally speaking eating crap food results in craving more crap foods!
Another common factor in sugar cravings is not eating regularly. Do you find yourself skipping breakfast and then by lunchtime you’re so hungry that you grab a muffin and a coffee with your salad? Try to eat regular meals including having a good nutritious breakfast to help reduce the occurrence of sugar cravings.
What should I do about my MUST HAVE sugar cravings?
The answer to this depends on your level of sugar cravings and how your body reacts when you do give in to your cravings.
If you can eat an entire king size block of chocolate in one sitting, step away from the chocolate and don’t even go near it (I’m not saying don’t do it ever just don’t use it as a crutch for your sugar cravings) find something else.
It may be that you can move up to a higher % cocoa chocolate and be fine eating a couple of squares, it may also be that you could devour that whole block as well. This is something you need to find out for yourself as there is no one size fits all answer.
Personally I can’t have an open package of biscuits in the house unless I want to demolish them as I know where they are and I keep sneaking back to have one or two until they are all gone – my solution is to NOT BUY BISCUITS any more!
That’s not to say I’ll never eat a biscuit again, if I’m out and about and one is on offer I will still sometimes accept if I feel like one at the time. It is a lot easier to just have one if you are at someone’s house and will look like a piggy if you keep going back for more until the package is gone. Something which you don’t get by eating at home – perceived judgements from others (often made up in our own head – this is a topic for a whole blog post!).
What should I do to beat my sugar cravings?
- First and foremost stop and have a think about whether or not you are actually hungry. If you’re not sure have a glass of water and wait it out 20 minutes and see if the craving is still there.
- Are you craving something sweet to fill the void of something else that is going on in your life AKA emotional eating?
- Can your sugar craving be beaten with a healthy alternative? Try some of my top clean sweet treats from below.
- Are you just following the Joneses? Everybody else is getting a block of chocolate and a cake so you feel like you should get one as well? Don’t be a sheep!
- Can I have something to stop this sugar craving without going overboard? Can you just have two squares of quality dark chocolate or will you grab a king size block and down it in one sitting?
- Assess the state of your current diet, often a diet high in processed foods and additives leads to more sugar cravings than a diet high in whole foods!
My Top Clean Sweet Treats
- A nice hot cup of herbal tea – try a fruity flavour such as berry.
- A piece of fruit
- A few dried dates (seriously these are natures caramel – try freezing them too!)
- Jelly (low-calorie if you get weight watchers and mostly water)
- Yoghurt!
- Bliss Balls (try my nut free bliss balls or chocolate mint bliss balls)
- Clean Bounty Bars
- Clean Snickers Bars
What is the one thing you can’t have in the house or you will eat the whole lot?
Brilliant article Amanda. I used to have the worst sugar cravings, I’d have cake then skip lunch, or sweets, and skip a meal. Giving up sugar has been the number one best thing I have ever done. Boy oh boy is it hard at the beginning, but now I have finally lost my sweet tooth and lost my huge insatiable appetite. And it’s not only your appetite that goes whacky with sugar, it’s our hormones, inflammation and clarity of thinking. Not to mention spotty skin and wrinkles (and who wants them)? Libby x
I find that sugar is the least of my worries. It’s potatoes. In general. It’s just potatoes. I am ADDICTED. It’s not even just a carb thing. It’s specifically potatoes. I could give up ANYTHING else with carbs in it, but not those. I cannot eat them in moderation. Seriously. Is it the starch? Who knows.
I did crave sweet things in my pregnancy but then I found out I had gestational diabetes which explains a lot, as it was never a massive issue before that.
Potato’s is an interesting one! I love fries but other than that can take or leave potatoes, in fact since I started eating a more paleo type diet and swapping to sweet potato standard potatoes taste weird too me now.
Such a great article, there is nothing worse than sugar cravings! My personal weakness is ice-cream. I keep my dairy free tubs at my brothers house so that I don’t get tempted by the yummy-ness in the freezer!
I think ice cream is quite a popular sugar craving, especially in the summer when you need something too cool you down. Good idea keeping it somewhere else!
Seriously Amanda, best blog ever. It’s totally come at the right time for me as many of your blog posts have.
I am so over the stupid sugar cravings and then I give in and have something and it’s too much and then I get this almighty sugar crash. Happened on Saturday and then again on Wednesday.
Going to take your advice and try some of your techniques. My problem time seems to be either when I am hungry, emotional or between lunch and dinner.
Might write it down for a bit and see if there’s a pattern….I expect there is.
š
Ness
I hope some of the techniques work for you, sugar is a massive demon to try and beat. I’m not sure that I will ever fully get rid of the cravings but these tips and techniques have definitely helped me resist more times than I cave. Definitely write things down and see what patterns develop. I know for my I crave sugar most when hungry and emotional as well so if you can identify that you can put strategies in place to help do something about it š
I can’t keep cake, cookies, candy, chips, or dried fruit in the house. Surprisingly i do pretty good with ice cream.
You’re doing well being able to keep ice cream in the house!! Thanks for stopping by š