Sugar cravings can strike at all times of the day and are often accompanied by hunger pangs or an energy drop. Sugar is not only delicious; it’s addictive and the fastest way our body can receive energy.

Here’s the thing: even if you wouldn’t consider yourself to be much of a sweet tooth, you’ll end up finding sugar in many foods – hidden in disguise. Some of its many aliases: high-fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, glucose syrup, sorghum syrup, fructose, maltose, dextrose… and the list goes on & on. This witness protection program for sugar will last as long as manufacturers keep trying to pack this sweet junk into our food.

On the other hand, tearing yourself away from a sugary love isn’t easy. But I will say that breaking a sugar addiction works best if the cravings can be suppressed – at least long enough for the body’s natural sugar response to balance itself out.

And so, I bestow upon you my Top 5 tricks
to curb your sugar cravings:

1. Balance blood sugar levels with cinnamon

Cinnamon can reduce these cravings by balancing out our blood sugar levels. It’s when those levels drop that we become tired and feel the need for a sugar fix. Ceylon cinnamon is the specific variety known for helping our bodies with glucose control; it can be easily added to your day by sprinkling it over müsli, fruits, smoothies, or making yourself a tea and putting in half a teaspoon of it.

2. Avoid artificial sweeteners

Contrary to popular belief, substituting real sugar for artificial sweeteners is not going to keep your sugar craving at bay (or help with weight loss, for that matter). In fact, sweeteners like NutraSweet or Equal (aspartame), Splenda (sucralose), and Sweet ’N Low (saccharin) are known to be so unnaturally sweet that, by adding them to your morning coffee, they actually acclimate your taste buds to an even sweeter palate – to such an extreme that no meal will match its level of sweetness for the rest of the day. Sure, they don’t disturb your blood sugar levels – but they’ll leave you craving something even sweeter… an endless cycle!

3. Make use of chromium

Chromium is a trace mineral in the body, necessary for our inner metabolic process. Proper chromium intake ensures that the foods we eat are utilized for healthy metabolic functions, while normalizing blood glucose levels and reducing sugar cravings. Chromium also works in tandem with insulin to transport sugar to cells so that they can use it for energy (instead of it being stored as fat). Foods high in chromium include: broccoli, sweet potato, free-range eggs, corn, oats and grass feed beef.

4. Eat more protein

Adequate protein intake prevents overeating and reduces sugar cravings by helping you to feel fuller for longer. To get a proper amount of protein into your daily diet, make sure that every meal includes a portion of protein – and that goes for snacks, too ?

5. Avoid getting really hungry

When we’re hungry and our blood sugar levels drop, we tend to feel a mixture of emotions – what has come to be colloquially known as ‘being hangry’. This is one of the major reasons we crave food. Eating sweets supplies us with a quick shot of energy and can satiate our hunger quickly, but eating more regularly will also help to reduce those sugar cravings.

Don’t let your cravings get the best of you!

Give these tips a try
and let us know how it goes 🙂

If you enjoyed reading this article, you can get an update of what’s on the magazine dropped right into your e-mailbox. Sign up here for our newsletter!