6 Tips to kick sugar cravings
Sugar is an inflammatory substance that can cause a whole host of symptoms and diseases when too much is consumed. Here are our top tips to kick sugar cravings and optimize your health.
When you eat excess sugar, the extra insulin in your bloodstream can cause the walls of your arteries to become inflamed, grow thicker than normal and more stiff. This stresses your heart and damages it over time. Don’t forget that carbohydrates break down into glucose (blood sugar), a type of sugar too. Therefore, if you truly want to kick those sugar cravings, you need to ditch the extra bread, chips and pasta.
Kick sugar with these top tips:
Read ingredient labels
(just like the labels on your skincare products). Avoid anything with added sugars like ketchup, salsa, protein bars, snack bars, juices, soups and even some frozen fruit.
Know the names for sugar
There are almost too many to list here, but these are the most common ones (in alphabetical order) to avoid:
Beet sugar, brown sugar, cane juice, cane sugar, caramel, carob syrup, corn sweetener, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, dehydrated cane juice, dextrin, dextrose, evaporated cane juice, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, galactose, glucose, golden sugar, golden syrup, grape sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, icing sugar, malt syrup, maltol, maple syrup, molasses, oat syrup, refiner syrup, saccharose, rice syrup, sucrose, sweet sorghum, syrup, treacle, tapioca syrup, yellow sugar
Skip the chips and bread basket
As mentioned above, simple carbohydrates easily break down into glucose (sugar). Glucose causes the same insulin spikes, and health harm as refined sugar. If you want to kick your addiction to sugar, you need to reduce your consumption of simple carbohydrates.
Add fibre
Complex carbohydrates (like brown rice or sweet potato) contain high fibre content which is very difficult for the body to break down in to sugar. If you want to avoid insulin spikes and the downsides that accompany them, add more fibre into your diet. Choosing complex carbs is one way to start. We also recommend adding fibre boosters such as chia seeds, flax meal or psyllium husk to your smoothies, healthy meals or baked goods.
Protein and healthy fats keep you feeling full
If you cut the sugary snacks without replacing them with a healthier choice, you will feel hungry and unsatisfied, and are less likely to stick with this detox. Adding protein and healthy fats to every meal and snack will ensure that you feel satiated, and more satisfied with this challenge. Nuts, seeds and nut or seed butters are an easy addition.
Use natural sweeteners or substitutes
You can add flavour and a sense of sweetness to your coffee, smoothies or snacks. We recommend these natural sweeteners: dates, vanilla extract, cinnamon and cacao powder. All fruit in its natural form is healthy to eat too, as it contains fibre, vitamins and minerals.
