What Is The Best Way To Stop Sugar Cravings

Think About Food Order

The order you eat your food matters. The best way to eat any meal is by eating the highest fiber foods first, then protein, fat, and starches last. But please dont rip apart your sandwich and eat it piece by piece. These rules are supposed to enhance your life, not make it more complicated. Prioritizing a plate of high-fiber vegetables, like a salad, before every meal is a simple way to implement this healthy hack.

If you eat the items of a meal containing starch, fiber, sugar, protein, and fat in specific order, you reduce your overall glucose spike by 73 percent, as well as your insulin spike by 48 percent.

Jessie Inchauspé, Glucose Revolution

Understand Why You Crave Sugar

Education and knowledge are the secret keys to finally killing your sugar cravings. Learn about your body. How much sugar did you eat before? How active were you? Give yourself grace as you go through the process to become Thin Adapted. Eventually, the cravings will become nonexistent, but you have to go through the process first.

Thats the difference between TAS and keto we teach and educate you about why your body craves sweets and how to work with your metabolism. You arent on your own you are surrounded by a community with a wealth of knowledge that will help you learn how your body operates. Work with your body, not against it.

Make Sleep A Priority

Getting enough sleep is a vital key to success for good health. Not only will it help you stop your sugar cravings, but it will also keep you energized throughout the day.

Set a regular bedtime and decrease the number of distractions in your bedroom. Try moving your TV out of the bedroom and charging your phone in another room.

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Buy Yourself Some Time

Drink a glass of water, take five deep breaths, or go for a short walk. If you are truly hungry, its okay to reach for a snack. Your best bet for stamping out a craving may be to have a snack that includes protein or a source of healthy fat. Prepping your own at the beginning of the week will enable you to be proactive and prevent trips to the vending machine for sugar-filled packaged foods.

Easy Ways To Stop Eating So Much Sugar

“Eat less sugar.” It may be a short and sweet suggestion but when it comes to how to stop eating added sugar, the reality isn’t as simple.

The USDA’s most recent dietary guidelines issued added sugar limits, recommending that we cut out sugar and keep our consumption of the stuff to no more than 10 percent of overall calories. That’s equal to 200 calories or 50 grams of added sugar per day for those following a 2,000-calorie diet. To put things into perspective, the average American eats between 73 grams and 77 grams of added sugar a day!

Even if you’re not downing sleeves of cookies or guzzling cans of Fanta, there are still opportunities for you to stop eating so much sugar. In fact, added sugar is often lurking in the places you’d least expect itsuch as “wholesome” bread, your go-to “healthy” snack bar and your post-workout smoothieand it may be just the reason you can’t get that flat belly you’ve been working on.

The good news is that it’s 100 percent possible to cut back! To help you do just that , we’ve compiled a list of easy ways for how to stop eating sugarwithout sacrificing the deliciousness of all your favorite foods.

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Ways To Stop Cravings For Unhealthy Foods And Sugar

Food cravings are the dieters worst enemy.

These are intense or uncontrollable desires for specific foods, stronger than normal hunger.

The types of foods that people crave are highly variable, but these are often processed junk foods that are high in sugar.

Cravings are one of the biggest reasons why people have problems losing weight and keeping it off.

Here are 11 simple ways to prevent or stop unhealthy food and sugar cravings.

Enjoy A Piece Of Fruit

“I don’t know if it’s possible to eradicate sugar cravings because they’re part of being human. But I do think that nature gave us fruit for a reason,” Largeman-Roth says. “It’s naturally sweet and loaded with fiber to help us feel full. It also delivers a host of benefits, including antioxidants that help our bodies and skin stay young and healthy.” Training your body to crave fruit instead of processed sugar will be greatly beneficial to your overall health.

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Go For A Brisk Walk Outside

Another thing that can work is to go outside for a brisk walk.

If you are a runner, running will be even better.

This serves a two-fold purpose. First, you are distancing yourself from the food that you are craving.

Second, the exercise will release endorphins, or feel good chemicals in your brain, which can help turn the craving off.

If you cant go outside, do a few exhausting sets of burpees, push-ups, body weight squats or any other body-weight exercise.

Summary

Going for a brisk walk or running may help reduce cravings.

What Can Your Sugar Cravings Say About Your Health

As discussed above, a sugar craving could mean that your body is lacking a vitamin or nutrient, or that your blood sugar levels are off.

Registered dietitian Farah Fahad recommends adding more protein to your meals, so your blood sugar levels dont drop. The body is a well-built machine, and if you are not giving it the right foods, it will say, Give me sugar! she explains. It wants energy for all the thousands of biological processes that are happening.

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Follow The 85/15 Rule

“Make sure 85% of your meals include innately healthy foods like fresh produce, lean protein, and healthy fats. The other 15% can include some treats,” Scarlata says. “If you make certain foods forbidden, then you just crave them even more. And truthfully, I don’t think there is a need to give up sugar entirely.” A little treat here and there never hurts.

Eat Dates With Nut Butter

Dried fruit has a higher amount of sugar than fresh fruit. This means that dried picks are more likely to spike blood sugar and lead to a sugar craving. However, pairing dates with high-protein nut butter thats full of healthy fats can give us the stable blood sugar boost our body needs. A quick snack of dates and nut butter can satisfy your sugar cravings while also giving you an extra bit of fiber, iron, potassium, and loads of other vitamins and minerals.

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Distance Yourself From The Craving

When you feel a craving, try to distance yourself from it.

For example, you can take a brisk walk or a shower to shift your mind onto something else. A change in thought and environment may help stop the craving.

Some studies have also shown that chewing gum can help reduce appetite and cravings .

Summary

Try to distance yourself from the craving by chewing gum, going on a walk or taking a shower.

Just Run Away From Your Cravings

For this trick, you can accomplish two healthful things at once: Calm the craving and get in a workout. A study published in PLOS One showed that short bouts of physical activity reduced cravings for sugary snacks among overweight individuals. I also see clients reap a mental benefit here. When youre proactive about doing something good for you, the not-good-for-you something suddenly becomes less appealing.

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Pinpoint Your Sugar Pitfalls

Try to get the bottom of what typically triggers your desire for something sweet, Alexander suggests. Often, it has nothing to do with hunger.

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A lot of times what we really want is a hug. … But we find ourselves in the kitchen, looking for something to make us feel better, Alexander says. Give yourself a moment to really think about what is driving your cravings.

Once you identify your triggers, make a list of alternate ways to handle those feelings. Maybe its listening to music, reading a book, watching a favorite TV show or having a long phone call with a friend. Post the list where you will see it the next time the chocolate chip cookies are calling your name.

Dont Mistake Tiredness Boredom Or Anxiety For Hunger

People eat for a variety of reasons, but its not always hunger that drives their decisions.

If youre tired, you should rest. If youre bored, you should find something to do with your hands other than snack on sugar, like knit, read a book, or go on a bike ride.

If youre struggling with anxiety, try some deep breathing, meditation, or yoga to calm your nerves instead of a candy bar laden with sugar.

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Make Sure Youre Getting Enough Calories

Sounds like a joke, right? But often when were dieting, we restrict too much and end up with cravings. When you dont eat enough, or you eat the wrong things, your body starts looking for fuel fast, as a way to catch up. So what does it do? Crave sugar! Sugar gives you quick energy, even though its not quality energy.

The only way to get around this is to eat whole foods, and break the sugar cravings cycle once and for all.

Bonus Tip: Take The 30 Day Clean Eating Challenge

Sometimes we need help to make the changes were seeking in our lives. When it comes to lifestyle, having the support and guidance of people who have been where you are, can make a world of difference. Thats why I created the 30 Day Clean Eating Challenge!

As a busy mom, I had to learn all about Clean Eating the hard way. Through my trial and error, I created a program that has now helped thousands of women transform without doing the extra heavy lifting. All you have to do is commit, and my team and I will guide you through the process. Meal plans, step-by-step instructions and private Facebook support included! If youre ready to transform your life and body, take the 30 Day Clean Eating Challenge with me.

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Swap Carbonated Drinks For Carbonated Water

Nothing can beat carbonated water when it comes to quenching your thirst and curbing sugar cravings. Carbonated drinks like soda, sweet tea, and Energy Drinks have a lot of sugar and are generally not good for you. However, it can be difficult to let go, especially if you are attending parties or in the summer when you want something to calm the heat.

If youre trying to curb your sugar cravings, you may want to consider replacing these carbonated beverages with seltzer water . Note that drinking Seltzer water can possibly cases gastrointestinal disturbances, like bloating and gas so you might want to avoid it. Instead stick to water, herbal tea, and lemon water.

Try infusing your water with freshly squeezed fruit juices like lemon or natural herbs for a different flavor experience. You can also include any sweet spice and add a splash of natural juice such as cranberry or cherry juice to give it color. See Is Soda Bad For You?

Swap Marinara Sauce For Fresh Tomatoes

There’s really no need to add sugar to tomato sauce because, well, the fruit is naturally sweet. But that doesn’t stop food manufacturers from loading their cans to the brim with the stuff. Since store-bought tomato sauce is often made with things like dehydrated tomatoes and cheap oils, they rely on the sweet stuff to amp up the flavor. Your best bet? Switch to a no-sugar-added option like Ragu’s No Sugar Added Tomato Basil or combine chopped fresh tomatoes with olive oil and spices in a frypan to create a quick pasta topper right on your stovetop.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

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Tips For Cutting Back On Added Sugar

If youre used to regularly eating sugary foods like cake, ice cream, sweetened breakfast cereal, candy, and cookies and regularly drink sugar-sweetened beverages, it may take time to reduce your reliance on added sugar.

For some people, cutting all forms of added sugar from their diet is helpful. However, others may find this method too extreme.

Fortunately, even making small changes to your sugar intake can significantly affect your overall health. Follow these helpful tips to slowly reduce your added sugar intake over time.

Summary

The tips above can help you slowly cut back on added sugar and improve the quality of your overall diet.

Here are some tips to help you beat the side effects and avoid or at least limit some of the symptoms related to cutting sugar out of your diet.

Understand The Difference Between ‘naturally

Before you freak out and throw out everything sweet in your kitchen, take a moment to fully understand the official sugar recommendation and the difference between added sugar and naturally-occurring sugar.

• Naturally-occurring sugar: Fruits, veggies, and plain dairy products have naturally-occurring sugar that shouldn’t overly concern you. Because fruits and veggies contain other digestion-slowing nutrients like fiber and healthy fats, your body doesn’t process the sugar as quickly as it would a cookie or a Twix bar. In other words, the sugar in apples and peppers won’t contribute to weight gain and diabetes like a soda will.
• Added sugar: The FDA defines “added sugars” as all sugars that are added during the processing of foods. This includes sugars from syrups, honey, and concentrated fruit or vegetable juices.

To remind you, the official recommendation is to cut back on added sugars, not all sugar. Beginning in January 2020, the Nutrition Facts Panel will have a column dedicated to added sugars, which will make it easy to detect which foods are high in added sugar.

Because some manufacturers will have until January 2021 to add this “added sugar” line, make sure to know how to calculate added sugar on your own. Naturally occurring sugars and added sugar are clumped together under “sugar.” This is particularly confusing when you’re buying things like flavored yogurt, which contain both types of the sweet stuff. So when in doubt, read the ingredients list.

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Learn And Recognize All The Different Names For Sugar

Now that you know which ingredients to look for, don’t stop there. There are over 56 different names for added sugar including:

• sucrose, glucose, fructose, dextrose, maltoseor any word ending in “-ose”

Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. So, the closer these sugar ingredients are to the beginning of the list, the more of that sweetener is used in the food.

If several forms of sugars appear on the label, think twice about making it a regular addition to your diet. Sometimes, manufacturers will use several forms of sugar on the label to prevent a single source from appearing close to the beginning of the ingredient list. In this case, check the nutrition facts panel to see just how much sugar is in the food.

To find out exactly how much added sugar, look at a similar, unflavored version of the product you’re interested in buying and see how they differ. For example, if a serving of plain oatmeal has 1 gram of sugar and a flavored version has 16 grams, it’s safe to assume you’d be consuming 15 grams of added sugar. When it comes to candy and sweets, assume all of it’s the added variety.

How To Stop Sugar Cravings: Eat More Regularly

Whilst were conditioned to think 3 meals a day is the best way to eat, this isnt strictly true. So if you find yourself experiencing serious sugar cravings a mere couple of hours after eating a meal, it could be time to re-think your eating routine.

Eating little and often can help avoid the temptation to indulge in sugar if you feel those pesky hunger pangs creeping in. Its also a great way to keep your blood sugar levels stable, too.

So how does it work?

Instead of 3 big meals a day, try switching to a small meal every 3-5 hours. These mini meals should be filling and rich in fibre, to help keep sugar cravings at bay. A light protein bowl, or cottage cheese with celery or carrots would work.

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Beware Of Dried Fruit

Though we’ve never met a raw fruit we didn’t love, dried and canned fruits are entirely different stories. Food manufacturers often add sugar, juice concentrates, vegetable oil, and syrups to extend their fruit’s shelf life and improve the flavor. Steer clear of these culprits to cut sugar and stay slim!

Win The Inner Battle With Sugar

Sugar cravings, as well as cravings for reward, solace and celebration, are natural. Remember its ok to use sugar to deal with lifes problems some of the time most people do. Difficulties occur when sugar becomes the go-to way of dealing with problems it wasnt designed to fix. By figuring out what you are truly craving, and developing a range of ways of dealing with it, you will be in control, not the sugar.

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