Is Your Diet Causing Sugar Cravings?

Yes, my diet was causing my sugar cravings for years!  Although I’m not big on “New Year Resolutions,” I am a big fan of looking at each day anew. Every moment of every day gives you an opportunity to make a new choice. I hope you find that as comforting as I do.

Maybe you’re at the point where you are just tired of being on that sugar roller coaster. The picture on the right is how I used to feel on the inside more often than not when hungry. You might have heard the term “hangry,” a combination of “hungry” and “angry.” When I felt this way, I would typically go after the refined carbs for quick energy and satisfaction.

I want to share with you how your diet may be fueling a whole heap of sugar/carb cravings. If only I had this information 10 years ago! I had no idea that what I was eating was only making my cravings worse. Like many others, I thought I was doing all the right things by eating low fat and snacking on healthy whole grains like granola bars and fruit throughout the day to keep my blood sugar stable. But my diet was just keeping me hangry!

Depending on what you’re eating (or not eating, in many cases!), you could find it almost impossible to quit sugar and impossible to feel satisfied throughout the day.

Here’s what to think about from a diet perspective to help you kick sugar cravings.

Eat Protein … YES!

Protein helps slow down the rate that sugar is released into your bloodstream. If your protein intake is on the low side with a higher carbohydrate meal, 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. Eat protein with every meal whenever possible. If you find yourself reaching for sugary snacks in the evenings and toward bedtime, have a small handful of nuts or nut butter instead.

Smart protein choices include animal meat, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds, and legumes.

Healthy Fats … YES!

As your body gets used to fueling itself with fats (and not sugar or carbs), it can break fats into ketones and use it for energy. Because you are not relying solely on glucose for energy, you feel fuller for longer, which turns off those sugar and carb cravings. Not eating enough healthy fats was one of my big misunderstandings and why I needed to snack ALL the time.

As a bonus, healthy fats also keep your brain supplied with the goods 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 this and your sugar cravings.

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

Nutrient Dense Carbs … YES!

Fiber is another way to tame those cravings. Mostly found in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes, fiber helps slow down the absorption of sugar into your blood. Fiber also helps feed that wonderful microbiome in your intestine (aka, your second brain).

Fiber helps keep you feeling fuller. If you’re genuinely satisfied after eating, you’re less likely to have sugar cravings, especially when combined with protein and plenty of healthy fats.

Nutrient-rich vegetables and fruit are great sources of fiber. However, I suggest initially limiting the amount of really starchy vegetables and sugary fruits—think potatoes, corn, parsnips, winter squash, mango, raisins, grapes, and ripe bananas.

Focus on including mostly low-starch vegetables and nutrient rich fruits, like greens, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, berries, and Granny Smith apples.

What Keeps You Craving? Refined Carbs & Processed Foods

You don’t always need to be eating sugary foods to get sugar cravings. Processed foods, including refined carbs, can have much the same effect since they’re quickly broken down into sugars in the body and cause blood sugar fluctuations. Bread, pasta, and rice are super common culprits for this, along with refined starches like crackers, bagels, rice cakes, and chips.

Simple 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? Sugar!

If you eat a lot of simple carbs, you’ll constantly have sugar cravings. This is when you are on the “Blood Sugar Roller Coaster.”

And when you start to cut out simple carbs, you can get increased 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 (not just sugar).

Swap simple carbs for complex carbs that don’t have the same effects on your blood sugar levels. Think primarily colorful vegetables with some whole grains and legumes.

Also swapping processed foods for a selection of healthy fats, proteins, and colorful vegetables will be a big help.

Processed foods are truly designed to be “craved.” Chemical engineers/food engineers find the perfect amount of salt, sugar, and fat along with natural and artificial flavorings to make you come back for more.

If you haven’t already, grab my quick and easy guide to start unlocking your own healing. Taking these few steps will make a world of difference—that’s a promise.