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Sugar cravings. How we love to hate them. You go to the store with perfectly good intentions to buy healthy food only to find yourself speeding toward the candy. I repeatedly hear from people “but I just can’t control my sweet tooth.”
A sugar craving is your body’s way of telling you something. Read on to find what your sugar craving is telling you about your health and what you can do about it.
Here’s another post about the nutrition you need to have to get rid of sugar cravings.
Does your body need sugar?
The answer is yes. Everyone needs sugar to maintain proper blood sugar levels in the body. Sugar is energy for your brain, muscles and organs. They all need glucose to function. The best form of this energy is from fruits, vegetables and complex carbohydrates that have fiber, vitamins and other minerals our bodies need.
How much sugar do you need?
The American Heart Association recommends 6 teaspoons a day for women and 9 for men (24 grams and 36 grams) yet the average adult is consumes 24 teaspoons a day and the average child 32.
What happens when you eat sugar?
The pancreas releases insulin to round up sugar and triage it. The first place your body tries to store sugar is in muscle, but when muscles are full it stores excess sugar in fat cells. The more sugar you eat, the more work your pancreas and liver have to do to clean things up and maintain equilibrium. 
What happens when you eat too much sugar?
With frequent insulin spikes, comes insulin and leptin resistance. This means more insulin production, more fat storage and more insulin resistance. Leptin is the other factor. This hormone controls hunger, satiety, manages fat metabolism, and monitors how much energy is circulating in the body.
Leptin is produced by fat cells, and what’s ironic is those who have difficulty losing weight generally have leptin resistance. Leptin resistance is perceived by the body as starvation, which causes the body to store more fat. Leptin resistance also stimulates formation of reverse T3 (thyroid hormone) which blocks thyroid effect on metabolism.
To summarize, a person’s body can believe it’s starving and keep telling them to eat more even though they’re eating excess calories. It’s a horrible, vicious cycle! Causes of high leptin include stress, high insulin levels, overeating, over exercising, and lack of sleep.
Insulin and leptin resistance means you’re at greater risk for type II diabetes if you’re overweight, sedentary or have an unhealthy lifestyle and it can happen to anyone. Skinny or fat. Diabetes does not discriminate.
Why do you crave sugar if it’s bad for you?
Sugar is addictive. Studies have shown that sugar has the same effect on the body that drugs do. When animals were given the choice between sugar and drugs they chose sugar and animals already addicted to drugs switched to sugar. At the root of the problem is food processing.
Sugar cane in its raw form has fiber and nutrients, but modern day food processing strips sugar cane of its essential nutrients so by the time it hits the shelf for you to buy, it’s a frankenstein food. Certain types of sugar like high fructose corn syrup suppress hormones leptin and ghrelin. These hormones send signals to your brain telling you when your fat cells are full and to stop eating.
HFCS has been linked to obesity and has been shown scientifically to metabolize the same way as alcohol. This is why you can drink soda and eat candy all day and never feel full, but get fat. Other reasons such as lack of sleep, stress and hormone imbalances cause intense sugar cravings as a result of leptin and insulin being out of balance. Read this post for more info on this.
What is your sugar craving telling you about your health?
Your sugar craving is telling you, you have an insulin problem and are over eating sugar and refined carbohydrates. Nearly 2/3 of Americans are overweight because they grossly overeating sugar and refined carbs. Even skinny people can become addicted.
Continuing on the path of over consuming these foods will set you up for metabolic syndrome, pre-diabetes, and the development of heart disease and type II diabetes. Your sugar craving is also telling you, you’re lacking key nutrients in your diet. Meaning you’re not eating enough non-starchy vegetables and fruit (in moderation) and eating too much junk.
Have you ever noticed how you can eat an apple or carrot and don’t repeatedly crave it over and over again the way you do sugar? How is that possible? Don’t apples and carrots have naturally occurring sugar? They do! The big is these foods have minerals and vitamins your body needs. They also have fiber to balance the sugar which means you don’t get a blood sugar surge.
That fiber slows the absorption of sugar causing less of a spike. In fact, if you’re going to eat sugar eating it with something like a salad is best. Sounds yummy, huh? Your body is smart. It knows what it needs. A sugar craving is your body’s way of telling you “I’m not getting what I need, stop feeding me junk and FEED ME real food!”
Your sugar craving may also be telling you, you have an imbalance in your life like too much stress, fatigue, and hormone imbalances. When I correct these basic things with my clients, their sugar cravings resolve and they’re able to start losing weight.
Watch the video to hear me talk more about what your sugar craving is telling you!
How do I stop craving sugar?
Sugar cravings are a vicious cycle. Protein will always stop a sugar craving, but the best way to crush your cravings is by ADDING to your diet.
Adding more plant based, fibrous foods like leafy greens, starchy vegetables and fruits as well as complex carbohydrates and healthy fats like seeds and nuts. If you’re eating enough plant foods and protein in the proper balance, you will feel satisfied, and will naturally stop craving sugar. 
On a side note, if you’re eating a low fat diet and working out but can’t seem to lose body fat, take a look at the sugar content in the foods you’re eating. All low fat and fat free processed foods have the fat replaced with added sugars like high fructose corn syrup so you’re likely eating a lot more sugar than you think.
Full fat foods are a better option. You’re probably thinking yeah right, my sugar craving can’t be this simple. But really, it is. As a recovering sugar addict, I can say it works.
After breaking up with sugar for a few weeks, you will stop craving it and be surprised by how much better you feel. Less achy joints, better sleep, less hypertension, less foggy brain and better digestion. All good stuff. Try it! If sugar is your enemy, you will only gain from trying.
Master Your Cravings
In my 12 week weight loss program for women over 35 with 20 to 50 or more pounds to lose, I teach you to master your nutrition, master your mindset and master your cravings.
This group program focuses on intensive nutrition education for fat loss, building lifestyle habits and practicing powerful mindset strategies through a self-paced online portal you can access 24/7.
Weekly group calls and live coaching in an intimate Facebook group are there to support you and give you accountability. This program always gives my clients the BIGGEST results and is very popular!
If you’re a woman over 35 with 20 to 50 or more pounds to lose and want to learn more, book a complimentary call with me so we can talk about your goals, challenges and if this program is a fit for you!
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Improve Gut Health To Lose Weight
This is what’s infuriating about the government… The American Heart Association says you should have no more than 24 grams of sugar per day for a woman, but the Center for Disease Control says Americans should limit their sugar intake to 10% of their daily calories from sugar. So for a 2000 calorie diet, that’s 50 GRAMS of sugar!!! For my 1500-1700 calorie a day diet that’s 37.5 to 42.5 grams of sugar! That’s what is criminal about the government. WHY are they misleading the public about sugar? It’s the sugar lobby lining pockets to keep them quiet.
I have a HUGE sugar addiction. It’s so bad a friend of mine actually gave me a little ‘intervention’ earlier today to stop me from spraying whipped cream in my mouth for a second time. The amount of sugar I’ve been eating almost every day for the past week cannot be good for the average person. Yet I feel perfectly fine, and that really worries me. I keep telling myself just because I can doesn’t mean I should, but it’s really hard to fight the urges, and at this point, I’m not entirely sure what I should do.
Sugar is highly addictive. In studies, rats prefer it over cocaine. If you haven’t watched the movie Fed Up, you should! It really explains well what sugar does and where it is lurking in foods. I highly encourage you to join my sugar challenge in January 2019 and start now with a healthy meal plan. It will teach you how to eat more of the right foods so you’re not always running for sugar. I’ve had tons of people like you work with me so you’re not alone and they always get great results when they are truly committed to changing.
Thankyou this was so helpful I will definitely try and calm my extremely intense sugar cravings with apple and talk to my doctor because my immune system has been terrible lately and I thought it was a hormone imbalance too. I was losing weight really well until these intense cravings hit me and I just can’t even describe how bad they are its so bad.
Glad to hear it was helpful for you! You should join one of the 14 day sugar challenges. I have a waitlist if you want to get on it, I’ll let you know when the next challenge is.
I just read an interesting article about this in regards to women who do the glucose tests for pregnancy. HOw much those who DON’T each sugar are affected and fail. Crazy, eh? Just shows how much our society is used to sugar OVERLOAD. Sadly
Definitely. I get people commenting on recipes sometimes saying they’re not sweet enough which always surprises me because they’re plenty sweet for me.
Great post! Started to ditch most of the sugared items at the house. I usually allow the kids to eat one cookie a day but I’ll be making my own cookies from now on. I heard coconut sugar is a great substitute for the regular one but much more healthy , is it so? Thanks
Coconut sugar biochemically does the same thing in the body as any sugar. Coconut sugar, however, is lower glycemic meaning it doesn’t spike your blood sugar like other sugars do.
I am a gastric by pass patient and after 5 years of weight loss due to very little sugar, lots of protein, water, and nutrients that our body needs, I lost 100lbs. I then started to crave and start to eat more and more sugar. I have gained 26lbs. I am so mad and couldn’t understand the cravings. They did a blood panel on me and I was vitamin deficient. I am now starting to cut the sweets and increasing the bariatric supplements. The only reason for the supplements, is because my body doesn’t absorb them as easily as normal bodies. I can say that I have resumed my exercise routine and feel more energize. This is lessoning my cravings for sugar. I highly suggest the blood panel to see what you are missing in your diet, allowing you to get the right things your body needs.
This was really interesting and thank you for sharing. I know I’m one to occasionally crave sugar but I’ve somewhat kicked that habit. It’s definitely still hard but I’ve kicked it for the most part.
Good for you! I say that, then I overdoes and the cycle begins all over again.