Sugar cravings – who DOESN’T have them? Sugar is extremely addictive after all, with some studies reporting it is more addictive than alcohol or cocaine.
Yet, while cravings are a normal part of life, how we respond to them can be incredibly common (eat ALL THE SUGAR!), but far from normal. While I wholeheartedly believe denying a sugar craving is not a matter of willpower or discipline, I do believe it IS a matter of mindset and intention.
In my RESTART® program, where participants are well-supported through a three-week sugar detox, the only rule I teach is that when choosing foods to eat, we do so consciously, we enjoy the food thoroughly and then we let it go. This frame of thought gives us freedom from guilt or shame. It lets us more positively embrace our choices with grace and understanding that it was the right choice for us in the moment. It gives us the ability to move on and make a different choice next time – to start over, as many times as we need to.
One of the most important concepts I teach RESTART® participants is these cravings can occur for a great many reasons, each making it incredibly difficult to kick the sugar habit. Fortunately, with a little digging into a person’s individual needs, several imbalances can be identified and gently corrected which can greatly reduce sugar cravings. So, ask yourself:
1. Are you digesting properly? If you aren’t eating AND absorbing the nutrition you need to fuel your body and mind, you are inevitably going to be starving for some simple carbs and sugars to power you throughout your day. This can cause a roller-coaster effect on your blood sugar levels as they rapidly rise and fall, further increasing sugar cravings.
2. Are your macronutrients balanced? These include protein, fat and carbohydrates. Using an analogy of a bonfire, carbohydrates (often sugars and processed foods for those following the Standard American Diet) are like the kindling you use to get the fire going. They are burned up quickly for energy. Meanwhile, protein and healthy fats are like the big logs you throw on the fire. They burn long and strong. All three work synergistically, and you need a balance of all three to maintain balanced energy levels and to feel satiated and satisfied throughout the day.
3. How’s your gut health? Your microbiome is a lifeforce within your body that has a definite say in sugar cravings. Did you know there are more genes in your microbiome flora than there are human genes in your body? This can be great for your health if your microbiome is a garden of beneficial flora that are body protective. But, sometimes it can be full of weeds, or bad flora, that feed off sugar and processed foods and literally scream at you to eat more, causing intense cravings. Even how you perceive or handle stress can affect your microbiome for the better or worse. Oftentimes, our favorite sugary foods we keep reaching for are the ones we have a sensitivity or intolerance to, which can exacerbate health conditions and further disrupt the gut.
4. Are your neurotransmitters balanced? More than 90% of your serotonin (a feel-good hormone) levels and 50% of your dopamine (a reward-system hormone that gives feelings of pleasure, satisfaction and motivation) levels are produced in your gut, which means: 1.) if you have an imbalance in your flora, 2.) if you have leaky gut where big food particles and other toxins are able to enter into your bloodstream and create inflammation and immune issues, and 3.) if your digestion is compromised, these neurotransmitters could be negatively affected, offsetting even the best attempt at decision making as your body seeks foods that temporarily make it feel good. In turn, eating sugar and processed foods can disrupt the receptors in your brain for neurotransmitters. This causes the brain to think these receptors are already filled, so it reduces the amount of neurotransmitters it produces. This can cause mood swings and sugar cravings, and it can be a vicious cycle!
5. How are you doing emotionally? Social media will encourage us to buy ourselves a little treat after the most minor inconvenience. Whether in solace or in celebration, sugar is a central part of our lives. It’s at every holiday, part of every tradition and is an often-sought refuge during times of duress. For many of us, it’s literally part of our core memories. Cake to celebrate birthdays. Candy at Easter. Ice cream after a good report card. Cookies to reward a particular wanted behavior as a child. And on and on it goes until we’re adults and we’re reaching every morning for a sugary and dairy-laden coffee for emotional reasons that go far beyond the need for a simple caffeine boost. Sugar then becomes a soothing balm, whether we’re bored, tired, angry, frustrated, happy or sad.
6. Have bad habits you can’t kick? Sugar cravings could just be a force of habit at this point: some unnamed feeling, thought or trigger forcing you into subconscious action. Habits are years in the making, and they are literally strengthened each time you perform the habit. While you can’t change in a day what took a lifetime to establish, by practicing neural flexibility, you CAN rewire your brain over time by building and strengthening neural pathways toward healthier habits. It DOES take the right mindset and determination to choose those healthier decisions over and over again until it becomes easy and natural.
7. What’s your “why”? I’ve found clients are most successful in curbing sugar cravings and reaching their health goals when they have found their “why” for the work at hand. Many of them are at their wits end. They’ve hit rock bottom. They are feeling horrible all the time, their symptoms are getting worse, and they realize they’re stuck on a hamster wheel they can’t get off, no matter how hard they try. For these people, having a meaningful intention and bringing a focused mindset to their goals can greatly help them give up sugar in lieu of a brighter and better path ahead.
8. Is deeper support needed? Sometimes, it feels impossible to move the needle in the right direction. In some cases where disordered eating or binging on sugar is occurring, there is a far deeper, psychological block. Working alongside a mental health professional can be the step clients need to identify a root cause for these troublesome issues. Oftentimes as a pleasant result, working on these emotional blocks can gradually improve digestive disorders simply because it helps put the client in a parasympathetic state where they can rest and digest, whereas they may have been living in a consistent sympathetic state of stress and duress for years. This sympathetic state makes it very difficult for the body to perform basic actions it needs to maintain good health, including digestion, detoxification and balanced immune function.
9. What about genetics? As for genetics, don’t underestimate the power of “epigenetics,” which is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause very real changes in how your genes function. Indeed, there are many lifestyle and nutritional changes one can undergo to turn “off” or “on” certain genes. So, while our genetics may predispose us to certain health conditions, we have the power to control several outcomes through good nutrition, proper digestion, and lifestyle balance that includes a focus on sleep, stress reduction, detoxification and movement.
My five-week RESTART® program is a great resource for those who want group support in managing their sugar cravings. Please feel free to contact me if you’re interested in participating in an upcoming class. Or, if you feel deeper support is needed, I would love to work with you one on one.
One parting thought
I’ll leave you with a short exercise that can help you embrace mindfulness throughout the day and start you on the path toward identifying any habits or patterns that may be unknowingly pushing you toward your next sugar fix. Mindfulness can help you make less impulsive and more informed decisions that allow you to stick to your goals and break habits or patterns that no longer serve you.
First, take a deep breath. Then, ask yourself these five questions:
- What am I seeing? (try to notice something you hadn’t before)
- What am I hearing? (try to hear something you hadn’t before)
- What am I feeling? (physically)
- What am I thinking? (what’s the loudest thought in your head)
- What am I feeling? (emotionally)
Simply notice your answer to these thoughts, with no action required except being curious. The more we practice these tiny moments of mindfulness, the more they will start to be our new normal and the more we will benefit from the transformative power of getting out of autopilot, especially where sugar cravings are concerned.