Did you know that your diet is likely fueling & enabling a whole heap of sugar cravings?

Depending on what you’re eating (or not eating, in many cases!), you could be finding it almost impossible to quit sugar.

If you’re not eating enough of certain food groups, it can make sugar cravings a lot more likely. Here’s what to think about from a diet perspective to help you kick sugar cravings.

Protein and Sugar Cravings

Protein helps slow down the rate that sugar is released into your bloodstream. If your protein intake is on the low side, your blood sugar can fluctuate a lot. And this means more sugar cravings!

It’s your body’s way of trying to get a quick energy boost. According to studies, eating a moderate-protein diet using quality proteins can reduce night-time snacking by as much as 50%.

If you find yourself reaching for sugary snacks in the evenings and towards bedtime, eating more quality protein during the day can be super helpful.

Smart protein choices include grass-fed beef, pasture-raised poultry & eggs, wild-caught fish, as well as nuts & seeds.

Fiber and Sugar Cravings

Fiber is another way to slow down the absorption of sugar in your body. A lot of the time, fiber passes through your digestive system without being digested, which means it doesn’t have adverse effects on your blood sugar levels. And it doesn’t pave the way for huge sugar cravings.

Fiber also helps keep you feeling fuller. If you’re genuinely satisfied after eating, you’re less likely to have sugar cravings, especially if you’re also eating quality proteins, and lots of healthy fats.

Dark leafy greens, sprouts, herbs and vegetables are a great source of fiber. There’s a good reason to eat veggies and make sure you get plenty of fiber-rich veggies to help keep your sugar cravings in check!

Carbs and Sugar Cravings

You don’t always need to be eating sugary foods to get sugar cravings? Carbs can have much the same effect since they’re broken down into sugars in the body and cause the same blood sugar fluctuations as sugar.

Carbs like bread, pasta, rice, pastry, cookies, cakes, oats, flour, sweet potatoes, corn, legumes are all super common culprits for this due to their high carb content (which converts to excess sugars in the body), along with refined starches like crackers, bagels, and potato chips.

Carbs get in your bloodstream super quickly. The end result?

An equally fast spike in your blood sugar levels. This is why you can get such an instant “sugar high” from eating a sweet treat.

The trouble is, it’s quickly followed by a blood sugar crash as your blood sugar levels dip. Your body tries to deal with this by looking for a quick energy fix and guess what it chooses? More Sugar!

If you eat a ton of carbs and you’re not eating quality protein, fiber and healthy fats, you’ll constantly have sugar cravings.

And when you start to cut out carbs, you can get mega sugar cravings — in the short term, at least.

After that, it gets easier to reset your body’s expectations, and it learns how to get energy from other sources like lots of healthy greens & vegetables, quality protein and healthy fats.

Healthy Fats and Sugar Cravings

As your body gets used to fueling itself with lots of healthy fats (and not sugar or carbs), the body then breaks down these fats into ketones which becomes the new energy source for your body.

Because your body no longer uses glucose for fuel, this keeps you feeling fuller for longer and turns off sugar and carb cravings.

As a bonus, it also keeps your brain supplied with the fats it needs to function well. Since your brain is largely made up of fats, this is super important for a happy and healthy brain.

If you tend to lack focus and have “brain fog” more often than not, looking at your intake of healthy fats could help with improved mental clarity and your sugar cravings will take a back seat as well.

Stock up on avocado, fatty fish like wild-caught salmon, nuts, seeds, olive oil, and coconut oil to get more healthy fats in your life.

Artificial Sweeteners and Sugar Cravings

Swapping sugar for artificial sweeteners might seem like a sensible choice. They have lower calories, so they must be better, right? Not always!

According to studies, you’ll still get sugar cravings — sometimes more extreme than with sugar. Research has indicated that artificial sweeteners can change the way your body uses glucose, which has a knock-on effect on sugar cravings and calorie intake in general.

They can fool your mind into “needing” more calories. The end result? You can wind up eating a whole heap more calories than you realize. Super ironic given that people often switch to artificial sweeteners to lose weight and avoid the effects of sugar, right?

That's it for today!

Remember, a Healthy Happy You Awaits!