Jul 07, 2022

11 Ways To Fight Sugar Cravings

If you’ve found that eating sugary foods just leads to more food cravings, you’re not alone. Refined sugars can give you quick energy, spike your blood sugar levels, and drop your blood sugar just as quickly.

The result? Fatigue, hunger, and an increased craving for more of the sweet stuff.

That’s not all. Sugar can be as addictive as a drug. By releasing the neurotransmitter dopamine — a reward chemical — constantly eating sugar can make you need more sweetness to get the same effect. So, you may be left with cravings and withdrawal symptoms if you don’t get your daily fix.

If you’re tired of letting sugar run the show, there are plenty of effective ways to curb your sugar addiction. In this guide, we’ll go over 11 craving-curbing tips to help you detox and explain why and how they work.

1. Nourish Your Body With Healthy Foods

If you’re giving your body the fuel it needs to run efficiently, your sugar cravings may not be as intense. Make sure you’re nourishing your body with the following:

High-quality protein: Protein is the raw material your body needs to grow, transport nutrients, balance fluids, and so much more. Make sure you give your body high-quality proteins like grass-fed beef, wild fatty fish, and free-range eggs. As a craving-curbing bonus, protein can help keep you full for longer.

Complexcarbohydrates: Slow-digesting carbs, like sweet potatoes, whole grains, and legumes, can provide you with a steady dose of energy. This can make you less likely to increase your sugar intake after meals.

Healthyfats: Fat is satiating and may help balance blood sugar. And no, it won’t make you gain weight! Just ensure you’re getting your fats from healthy sources like olive oil, grass-fed butter, or Sweetkick Clusters.

2. Don’t Get Hungry

When we get hungry, our energy levels drop. And is there a quicker way to raise them than with a quick dose of sugar in the form of ice cream or another sweet treat?

Try to avoid getting hungry in the first place. If you’re following our nutrition tips above, we’re sure that you’ll feel much more satiated. But there’s more to satiety than just food.

Some lifestyle factors, such as how much sleep you get, your stress levels and general mental health, and your water consumption, can all impact how hungry you feel during the day.

So, make sure to take care of yourself; your hunger will naturally fall into place.

3. Feed Your Gut Bacteria

It’s a fascinating phenomenon that researchers are still trying to understand. But it could be that certain bacteria in your microbiome trigger sugar cravings.

Makes sense to us: After all, these tiny organisms are trying to survive, too.

Ignoring such cravings is a challenging feat. So how about working with your gut bacteria instead? Sweetkick’s Prebiotics can nourish your microbiome, helping to quell those intense sugar cravings at the gut level.

4. Train Your Mind

Yes, sugar is physically addictive, but your mind plays a role here also. If you’re used to eating sugar at a certain time, like after dinner, you’ll expect it.

Instead, train your mind not to expect sugar at all. If those cravings hit during a certain time, have a cup of our Herbal Balance Tea and wait for them to pass.

5. Choose Quality Over Quantity

If you’re going to have a sweet treat, it’s better to go for something high-quality. For instance, instead of eating a candy bar, have a square of decadent dark chocolate to help satisfy your sweet tooth.

And hey, dark chocolate may even be healthy. It’s full of antioxidants and, depending on the brand, heart-healthy cacao butter. And if it’s super dark (like 90% or above cacao content), it may help curb your sugar cravings.

6. Combine Sugar With Protein or Fat

Refined sugar on its own is a recipe for disaster. It gets quickly absorbed by the body, spiking your blood sugar and leaving you with a major crash within the hour.

But if you combine sugar with a source of protein or fat, then it’ll take less of a toll. Better yet, eat something sweet after having a meal with protein and fat.

7. Take a Shot of ACV

Apple cider vinegar contains acetic acid, which may help prevent blood sugar spikes after eating. Plus, its acidic taste can decrease your appetite, making you crave less sugar.

Just keep in mind that ACV’s high acidity can damage your teeth, esophagus, and GI tract. So, remember toalways dilute it with water before drinking.

8. Drink Some Coffee

A true superfood, coffee is associated with tons of health benefits. One of those benefits is a healthy weight. But how exactly does coffee accomplish this?

Well, coffee is a stimulant of sorts, which means that it releases hormones that boost your energy levels. One of those hormones is epinephrine, which has an appetite-suppressing effect.

Plus, coffee gets its bitter flavor from compounds called tannins. These can satisfy your taste buds differently, making you less likely to crave the sweet taste of sugar.

9. Skip Artificial Sweeteners

Intuitively, it may feel like artificial sweeteners are the perfect solution to sugar cravings. They’re sweet, so they must satisfy sugar cravings. But since they don’t actually have sugar, they may somehow be better for you.

That’s the story we’re told, but we’re not buying it.

First, we want to avoid the fake stuff because we still don’t know how they affect our brains and bodies. There’s just not enough evidence to say they don’t harm health. We’d much rather be safe than sorry.

Plus, they may actually spike sugar cravings. One study even shows that a popular artificial sweetener greatly increases sugar cravings and overall appetite in women.

And if you must have something sweet, we’d rather you go for natural sugar substitutes, such as stevia or monk fruit.

10. Resolve Underlying Emotional Issues

Okay, this is a tough one, but it’s definitely affected us all at some point. How often have you felt sad, stressed out, or just downright bored and found yourself reaching for sweet foods?

Sugar can be comforting during a stressful time. But when you turn this into a habit, you can do much more harm than good.

Try to understand what’s making you reach for sugar in the first place. Once you get to the bottom of the issue, you’ll see your sugar consumption decrease on its own.