Are You Always Craving Sugar? Here’s Why – And How to Curb It

Hey guys!

We all know that eating sweets all the time isn’t the best habit. I mean I LOVE to indulge sometimes (right now, ube ice cream is my weakness), but I can totally tell when I overdo it. It just makes me feel tired, it breaks out my skin, and I just don’t feel my best. Sometimes it makes me sooo grumpy and I feel like I’m just in a fog. So, I try to find healthier ways to curb my cravings as much as possible.

But cravings are tough.

What IS it about sugar that makes it so hard to avoid? Why do our bodies crave it so much?!

Let’s find out!

Sweets are kind of addicting

I’m not going to compare sugar to drugs, but I totally believe that the way we crave sugar is kind of like an addiction.

Two reasons:

Habit
Our brains

Humans are just creatures of habit. If you’re someone who has always grabbed something sweet after dinner, it’s probably going to be tough to break that habit. The “craving” you get after dinner for something sweet happens because you’ve literally trained yourself to feel satisfied ONLY after you’ve had that dessert.

Our brains get used to these habits too, making it even harder to curb cravings for sugar. Not only does your brain looooove sugar as fuel, but it treats sugar like a reward. When we eat sugar, our brains release dopamine, which is literally nicknamed the “feel-good” neurotransmitter. It’s part of the brain’s reward system, so of course we’re programmed to want more!

So what do you do to fight the urge? A couple things.

Slowly change your routine. If you want to tame that nightly dessert craving, replace it with a different habit. Go for a walk instead and replace sugar with a different “feel-good” habit!

Give into your craving in a healthy way. If you crave something sweet, then eat something sweet! Instead of going for cookies or ice cream every night though, switch it up and eat fruit or experiment with a low-sugar dessert liiiiike vegan peanut butter cheesecake (drool), zucchini bread pudding (omg), or pink lemonade sorbet cups (PERFECT for summer).

Maybe you’re trying too hard

Sometimes when we decide it’s time for diet overhaul, we go a little too hard.

Our bodies are super stubborn when it comes to losing weight and calorie restriction. If the changes you’ve made to your diet are even slightly drastic, your body is probably going to fight back a little.

You know those memes that are like, “egg and veggies for breakfast, salad for lunch… whole pizza, 17 breadsticks and carton of ice cream for dinner” ?