Do you ever feel like your body craves sugar? It just needs that little bit of sweetness to make it happy. The next thing you know, you’re looking at 5 empty candy wrappers or half a box of cookies that was brand new 10 minutes ago.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever experienced this. I’m definitely raising my hand! If you’re hand is up, you’re human. I’m here to share with you that it’s not your fault and you can take control of your sugar cravings before they start. And, it’s actually pretty simple. It may not be easy at first but once it happens, you’ll feel like you can overcome any hurdle in your life.
Before I share how to squash your sugar cravings (and it’s not about willpower), let’s dive into why you feel like your body needs sugar.
Sugar is in a majority of processed food on the market: sauces, condiments, baked goods, crackers, protein bars, and the list goes on. According to Grand View Research, the market size of sugar in 2023 was $66.39 billion. That’s incredibly high considering there’s zero nutrients in it and it’s an ingredient that causes chronic disease in millions of people in the U.S. and billions around the world.
In the Simpson’s episode Sweets and Sour Marge that paints a great picture of how dependent we are on sugar. Springfield, the home of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, is declared the fattest city in America and Marge is not happy about this. She goes to work to get the residents of Springfield to sign a petition to ban sugar in Springfield.
As she’s going around town collecting signatures, Chief Wiggum says that sugar is the reason his son Ralph is happy and angry at the same time. She stops by the house of Springfield’s resident hillbilly, Cletus, and he signs the petition because sugar is the reason his sister is obese and has diabetes. The show cuts Cletus’ sister using an ab roller and eating a bite of cake as a “reward” for her fitness efforts. Rewarding yourself with sweet treats (or any other indulgence) is an entirely different conversation. We’ll tackle that another day.
Marge gets enough signatures and Marge’s Law is passed. All the food with sugar in it is burned in a pile. Except for the Butterfingers candy bars that the fire spits right back out because, according to Chief Wiggum, “Even the fire doesn’t want them.” After all the sugar is burned in a big bond-fire there’s very little food left in Springfield. Homer walks in to Apu’s Kwik-E-Mart and the shelves are pretty much empty. This is actually a little scary because it’s the reality that we would experience if sugar was banned. A whole lot of food would disappear off the shelves.
When you go to the grocery store, a majority of the food on the shelves is processed foods. To be clear, there are some packaged processed foods that are made with whole food ingredients that are on the healthier end of the packaged food spectrum. However, most of the processed foods, in my opinion, are highly-processed. This means they have more chemical ingredients in them than real ingredients.
If you’re eating a lot of this processed food (cereal, condiments, baked goods, chips, crackers, pasta, etc.) your body doesn’t really know how to burn all these calories off for energy. Amongst the confusion with what to do with extra energy floating around in your bloodstream, your body stores it as fat for later use. This is also when you feel the ups and downs of energy levels. When you feel low energy, your body tells you to reach for the sugar even though it has more than enough.
So, how do you squash your sugar cravings before they start? Let’s dive into the one simple thing you can do to help you feel confident going about your day without even considering eating a sugar filled treat.
Eating enough protein throughout your day will train your body not to crave sugar. Here’s the thing about protein: it helps keep you feeling satisfied longer and it’s hard to eat too much of it.
When your body feels like it’s had enough to eat to power all the systems in your body it needs to survive, your hormones are telling your brain “We’re good. We don’t need any more calories of any kind to continue functioning efficiently. You’re free to go about your day and do what you want without having to worry about eating for now.”
Now, I realize in theory this solution sounds simple but it might not be easy, at least at first. I’ll walk you through a process that works for me (and that I share with clients) to help you get your protein intake dialed in.
Make sure you’re eating a good amount of protein with every meal, especially your first meal of the day. In the morning, I’ll eat 2-4 eggs, hard boiled, fried, or scrambled, whatever I’m feeling or have time to prepare. Sometimes I’ll throw in some uncured bacon or breakfast sausage. I’ll often have a collagen protein shake as well. Just a quick note on collagen: it’s not a complete protein so I wouldn’t recommend adding it to your protein intake tally. It’s an awesome supplement to keep your skin, hair, nails, and joints super healthy.
Any kind of animal protein is great at any time of the day. I ate leftover fish for breakfast one day this week and it was delicious! Think outside the cereal box in the morning and get creative with your protein packed breakfast.
Build the rest of your meals throughout the day around protein. For example, if I feel like having chicken, I’ll cook up some chicken with mushrooms and onions and add some bone broth or veggie broth based soup (without sugar) to the mix and within 30 minutes or less I have a nutritious, delicious, satisfying meal ready to eat for dinner.
Eating enough protein, especially for women, can be a bit challenging. Slowly increase the amount of protein you eat each day or week and you’ll get to a point where you naturally don’t crave sugar any more. If you’re not sure whether or not you’re eating enough protein, go here to check out a Wellness Abundance Podcast episode on the topic.
Enjoy your protein-packed meals!