Sugar Cravings are very difficult to manage, there are top tips to reduce sugar in your diet. Sugar in processed foods like breakfast cereals, snacks, candies rather than sugar in natural foods like tomatoes, carrots etc. and fruits. It is not a problem because they have fiber, vitamins, and minerals intact. The problem is added sugar. Now how much added sugar should you have per day? What is the limit? The World Health Organization has a limit, they recommend less than 50 grams of added sugar per day.
Read Labels Carefully:
Read labels in all the processed foods
Learn to read labels on the ingredients list, all the ingredients that were used to make food are listed. First, the ingredient that is used most. So look through the ingredient list and try to look at the list and try to look for words that signify sugar.
Eat more whole foods
Foods that are in natural form for eg -fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, that sort of thing so if you have a diet which has whole foods. You automatically reduce the amount of sugar in your diet.
Don’t drink your calories
One of the easiest ways to have too much sugar is to drink it because it doesn’t feel like we are getting that much, it’s just very easy to overdo, try not to drink all your calories in the form of sugar.
Avoid relying on healthy sweeteners too much
Maple Syrup, honey, jaggery and all these natural sugars are healthier than artificial ones. So basically replacing white sugar with natural sugar addiction.
Eat enough proteins
When you don’t eat enough proteins, your blood sugar tends to be a little erratic so let’s say, you have breakfast, its sugary breakfast cereal with little milk, your breakfast didn’t have enough proteins so your blood sugar levels went up and then you have a dip and during that dip, you have a sugar cravings. Now if you want to prevent sugar cravings, a good idea is to get enough proteins in your diet. It is recommended to have 15- 16 grams of protein throughout the day and if you have stabilized your blood sugar levels and you are not going to have a sugar cravings.
Eat more Fats
When you eat enough fats in all your meals, you are less likely to have those sugar cravings. Your blood sugar levels are stable and you feel fuller for longer. So eating fats from whole foods sources not from things like oil, when you are having fat from whole food sources, you get all of the nutrition.
Example – Compare Avocado oil to Avocados, Avocado oil is pure fat there is nothing in these by fat but Avocados have vitamins such as B, Vitamin K, Vitamin E, and fibers so when you get fat from natural Avocado you are getting a lot of nutrients. Natural Resources like coconut, nuts, seeds etc. are healthier than oil.
Remove Temptations
If you have sugar snacks lying in your cupboard, you are more likely to eat them than you are not going to have them if they are not in your home.
Keep low sugar whole treats around
Just because you can’t have the sugary snack that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself so we recommend keeping some low sugar snacks around at home. Keep Freshly cut Fruit in the fridge if that helps. Sometimes you want something a little extra, you can choose frozen grapes, bananas.
Summing Up
When you eat a high amount, it can cause many diseases like obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease etc. When you stop taking sugar, a lot of physiological changes happen like your hormonal change- levels of insulin hormone come down, insulin hormone helps in regulating sugar and stores excess glucose. When you stop eating sugar it helps your body to access stored fat and burn it for energy.