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Sugar Cravings!

twfme57
twfme57 Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition

Help, I seen unable to control my sugar cravings. I take my vitamins, drink metamucil daily, try to eat a protein each day (but could probably do better). I will buy a bag of candy or an ice cream and eat it even if it makes me sick. Any suggestions would be helpful. Tia

Answers

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 10,196 Member

    Why do you think you need the snacks? What makes you buy them? Do you log them if you eat them? If not: start there. Log every bit of candy you eat. Do you try to avoid ANY snack? Could you build some into your diet? Eat more fruit?

  • connor_manning
    connor_manning Posts: 39 Member

    How much water are you drinking a day? I often times feel if I’m trying to drink a lot of water (64+ oz) then a lot of my cravings start to disappear.

  • totameafox
    totameafox Posts: 896 Member

    if you probably 'could' do better then do better. Be ok with telling yourself 'no'. You aren't going to die because you want something you don't need.

    On the less direct side, Halo top ice cream is my go to 'once a month' ice cream treat. They have several flavors and it has lots of protein and fiber.

    Remember you are always in control. Even when you feel out of control. Each decision is yours to make.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,538 Member

    "A" protein? Probably not enough protein. At minimum, if you're logging your food, eat the default goal amount of protein. Choose primarily good quality, bioavailable protein: Meat, fish, dairy, soy, or similar.

    Eating food with fiber - varied veggies, fruits, whole grains - will do more for feeling full than taking metamucil, and as a bonus give a better, more useful complement of micronutrients than relying on multi-vitamins. At most, multi-vitamins are an insurance policy against gaps in eating, not a substitute for eating nutritious foods.

    For me, making it a point to eat several servings of fruit daily greatly reduced my cravings for sweets like candy or baked goods. That doesn't work for everyone, but others here have said it helped them, so it may be worth a try. For me, it took a small number of weeks to be effective, so initially it might require an investment of willpower. For me, it was easy after that.

    If your sleep quality/quantity could be improved, work on that, because fatigue can increase sweets cravings, perhaps especially evening cravings.

    Ditto for stress: High stress can increase cravings, too. Use traditional stress management techniques, or eliminate stress from your life where you can.

    If you're eating sweets partly due to boredom, consider a new or resumed hobby. Bonus points if the hobby requires clean hands (like sketching, needlework, playing a musical instrument, etc.) or creates dirty ones (like painting, carpentry, gardening, etc.) .

    If you're eating sweets partly due to habit, replace the habit with a more positive one: Take a walk around the block, drink some hot herb tea, meditate or pray, whatever.

    And yeah, like the others said: Don't buy the treats in the first place.

    You can do this. Dig into it, find your triggers, find the reasons why you're eating all that sugar, try things that directly address the underlying issues rather than smoothing things over with SugarSugarSugar.

    You can do this, and the effort is worth it.

    Best wishes! 

  • amy19355
    amy19355 Posts: 806 Member

    one of my tricks for sugar cravings is to pop a few fiber gummies, or my vitamin C gummies. My brain thinks it got a sugar fix and the chewy factor is also satisfying.

    Another trick is chewing gum.

    As an alternative, I also like dried, unsweetened mangos - as is or reconstituted with some hot water.

    sometimes I have a teeny tiny slice of homemade pie at a party but I usually try to bank some exercise-calories in antixipation!

  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,803 Member

    I am a sugar fiend, I can't just have a piece of candy, I'll eat the whole bag and make myself sick. A trick that works for me is addressing the craving with the polar opposite - sour or spicy. Pickles, olives, sauerkraut are good ones, or a spicy tom yum soup, wasabi peas, chilli seaweed snacks. It's like it derails my taste buds.

  • yakkystuff
    yakkystuff Posts: 140 Member
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48524450#Comment_48524450

    Same here. Not sure why but pickle with mustard snaps my sweet tooth.

  • fit2train2021
    fit2train2021 Posts: 1 Member

    I’m with @alatariel75 that I am addicted to sugar. It’s real and the sugar industry knows it. I am currently reading 3 related books: How Not to Diet (recommended by my GP and all research based information, Food Junkies, and The Food Addiction Recovery Workbook. All baby steps. And I’m educating myself on all of the various kinds of sugar. Research shows that sugar can be more addictive than cocaine.

    image.jpg
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,803 Member

    Just to be clear, I like sugar and have difficulty moderating, and find it easier to abstain. I don't consider myself an addict, and don't believe there's some dark conspiracy around treating people like junkies in respect of it. It's a cheap, hyper-palatable flavour enhancer which gives an energy spike when consumed. Of course us sentient, pleasure craving meatbags are going to seek it out. I'm not out there mainlining granules from the pantry when I can't get my hands on a bag of Starbursts, and giving it up doesn't send me into withdrawals, and I'm not going to engage in a life of crime or compromise my moral standing to get my hands on some. The cocaine v sugar study findings was on rats and has been widely criticised.

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,601 Member
    edited 3:39AM

    Sugar granulated, or powdered: 103.33g = 400 Cal.

    Pls ingest undissolved. Straight up. Using spoon or finger. But not mixed with anything! 🤔

    I'm fairly sure I would find it boring 🤷‍♂️

    Hyperpalatable is hyperpalatable. I'm not sure that sugar, by itself, is hyperpalatable.

  • yakkystuff
    yakkystuff Posts: 140 Member
    edited 5:18AM
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48524783#Comment_48524783

    Not sure the sugar itself is hyperpalatable itself, but have read the chemical dynamic in the brain from hyperpalatable (also UPF) foods may trigger a dopamine and serotonin voracious appetite for some people that sends them chasing more food...

    In the absence of their preferred foods, they might go for sugar straight up or whatever else is actually on hand, or hop in car and go get more. The choices are rather ubiquitious.

    Think it maybe also depends on the strength of the combined physical and emotional urges, habits, sheer white knuckle willpower?

    Each person's struggle will uniquely differ, and some have a harder go.

    For me, i do not moderate goodies well sometimes, and yet other times i can walk away. I tend to use different strategies at different times.

    As to calling this dynamic a food addiction, kind of waiting for the terminology debate to evolve further.

    Until then, all I can do is keep making food choices each time, hopefully nourishing ones.

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,601 Member

    There is very little disagreement from me that: "it maybe also depends on the strength of the combined physical and emotional urges, habits, sheer white knuckle willpower? Each person's struggle will uniquely differ, and some have a harder go. For me, i do not moderate goodies well sometimes, and yet other times i can walk away. I tend to use different strategies at different times."

    The salient point for me is the correct identification of the issue. It could well be a personal limitation, I admit. But (imho, of course) in order to counter something optimally you should correctly identify what you need to counter!

    I don't want to waste my time countering gluten, for example, if I am not gluten intolerant. I would be barking up the wrong tree.

    Absolutely MANY of us have impactful combinations of emotional urges and habits having little to do with actual hunger. AND, also, MANY of us have issues moderating hyperpalatable goodies. And may need to try a combination of strategies that evolve and change over time. And all this will also change depending on whether we are eating at a deficit, at maintenance, or at a surplus and the length of time we do so. Absolutely!

    But if you identify the culprit as a single ingredient and find short term success by controlling it, I think that you then run a higher risk of the whole thing unravelling on you as compared to if you more accurately identify your issues so that you can build a mitigation framework around them.

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