I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love a sweet treat on occasion. Some of us, though, are eating sugar more than just occasionally. We can certainly live without refined sugar….or can we? It’s everywhere –in most anything packaged, including drinks, soups, breads, in a lot of things you wouldn’t even consider sweet. Every celebration involves sugar and sweets, and boy, those sweet cravings can be brutal. I’m one of those people that almost never makes it through a day without a little taste of something sweet. I imagine I’m probably not alone, that’s why I’m posting this!

Did Someone Say Dessert??
How bad is sugar really? And are certain sweeteners better than others? Is it possible to control sweet cravings? And why would anyone want to cleanse from sugar?

The Slavery Of It All

I’m glad to say that while I still love my sweets – especially chocolate – on a regular basis, I am no longer asleep to how I was literally a slave to my sugar cravings. I didn’t have a weight problem, so calories didn’t matter much to me. I just thought I loved sweets, and had a sweet tooth and that was it. Until, that is, I decided to try and eliminate all sugar from my diet for a short time. For the first time I noticed not only how often I craved sweets, but how little control I seemed to have with frequency and portions of sugary snacks.

The problem is subtle sometimes, not always so dramatic, but definitely there. There are short bursts of energy followed by a crash that leaves you right back where you started, lethargic, maybe a little spacey or cranky and craving more sugar. I still remember my daily routine several years ago: after a full day of work, coming home exhausted and sleepy. I would crash at home for a while, before I peeled myself off my couch, groggy and foggy, to go to Starbucks to get a latte and a delicious, big fat chocolate chunk cookie. Then I would be fine again for a while. I was on a sugar roller-coaster.

This back and forth pendulum-like quality is what happens when you are eating a lot of foods (simple carbohydrates) that spike your blood sugar. You might feel energetic for a short time, but once your body’s insulin response kicks in (which will send all the sugar into your cells to use it as energy) you wind up with low blood sugar or hypoglycemia, otherwise known as the “crash” that comes after eating sugar. This can cause irritability, lethargy, shakiness, nausea, even fainting. So then you crave more sugar to get more energy. And away you go, constantly swinging between high and low energy. So you can see how sugar alone will not sustain energy for any significant amount of time.

Not all carbohydrates will have this effect. Complex carbohydrates such as vegetables, whole grains, beans and legumes have a much more even effect on blood sugar. Also, it’s not only sweets like cake and candy that send your blood sugar sky-high. White flour, pretzels, fruit juice concentrate, honey, maple syrup, even white rice, will do the trick as well. Because they raise your blood sugar quickly, they are rated relatively high on the “glycemic index” which is basically a measure of how high a food raises your blood sugar. Some fruits, like bananas or raisins, are likely to send your blood sugar up more quickly than others, so they are considered to be higher on the glycemic index.

There’s good news: it gets better once you get off the crazy sugar treadmill! Your energy will improve, and you won’t feel so tempted by treats or sugar when you are in their presence.

Getting your sugar intake under control has other benefits too. Excess sugar intake has been shown to suppress the body’s immune system and lead to insulin resistance, diabetes and obesity. It also creates the perfect conditions for cancer cells to live. They literally live off sugar! Chronic inflammation has been shown to be the basis for disease, and is exacerbated by guess what….sugar.

Here’s what can help to even out blood sugar levels. By adding more of these into your diet, you can hopefully feel less “hunger-panic” and not need so many quick sugar fixes:

1. Greens: in every meal, even for breakfast in a smoothie! Salads, sautéed, steamed, YUM! They are alkalizing and contain minerals that normalize blood sugar, thus reducing cravings.

2. Green juices: You can get these on the run at a good health food store or make them yourself at home. You can juice just about any green, and add lemon, maybe a little apple to help it go down at first if you are not used to the taste. Again – delicious and alkalizing.

3. Healthy Protein and Fats: Nuts, avocado, eggs or lean meats (if you are not vegan or vegetarian), beans, tofu, tempeh, olive oil and flax oil. The fats take longer to digest and slow the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream.

4. Water: Being hydrated helps decrease cravings and has tons of other benefits too!

5. Eating regularly: Healthy snacking between meals is key for keeping blood sugar even. Skipping meals makes you more likely to grab whatever junk is around when your blood sugar drops.

Actually, I don’t think it’s so bad to have a treat occasionally. Eliminating all sugar is unrealistic for an average healthy person, not to mention boring! But the idea of being in control of your sugar intake is key.

Keep in mind, control doesn’t always mean “strict” or “rigid” or “self depriving”. It means being balanced so that you are not reacting to the fluctuations in your blood sugar. This way you can have treats occasionally when you choose, and you can also choose to limit your intake. Doing this is a lot easier if you’re in a balanced state.

That’s my point. It’s not really a choice until you are aware and making conscious decisions. If your blood sugar is swinging like a pendulum how are you supposed to know if it’s a decision or a reaction to your body chemistry? It’s not always just a question of willpower!

Emotional eating is another reason people overeat sugar, but that’s a whole different ball game. (One of my favorite books about cravings, physiological and emotional is Nourishing Wisdom, by Marc David.)

The fact that sugar is in so many foods makes it no wonder that we as Americans are so confused about why we are hungry all the time and keep gaining weight. I think many of us are unaware as to just how much sugar we really are eating. Maybe that’s why we crave it so much! It really pays to develop awareness about how much sugar you’re eating and how it makes you feel. You can start by trying some of the following things:

Here’s how to have your sweets and eat them too!

1. Keep your fridge stocked with fresh fruit. When you are craving sweets, grab and apple. To get fancy try this: slice it and drizzle with fresh lemon juice and sprinkle with cinnamon. It’s seriously delicious!! Plus, the fiber in the apple will kill your appetite for a while.

2. Never on an empty stomach. This will spike your blood sugar, which calls for an insulin response. This is what your body is supposed to do, send the sugar to the muscles for use as energy. But when there’s no protein or fat, just simple sugar, it could lead to hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. These fluctuations are what make you feel the sugar “crash” after eating sweets. Having a meal or at least some protein before eating sweets will help this problem.

3. Really make it worth it. Think about your decision to have sweets. Notice if you are craving out of habit, low blood sugar or because you are bummed out. Don’t just eat them because they are there! Eat them because you are making the choice to really enjoy a moment of sweet bliss. You know what those Twinkies taste like, do you really want to waste your sugar intake on them?

4. Stop, Sit, Enjoy. No shoving down a chocolate fudge brownie as you run to catch the bus! A few years back I even stopped walking around the city carrying hot tea or coffee in “to-go” cups after a visit to Italy where nobody (I mean nobody…) does that. I don’t think they even make paper cups over there. Everyone stops, drinks their coffee (or eats their treat) enjoys it and then gets on with their day.

5. Take a small portion. It’s all you really need if you get to savor your treat. Don’t talk. Don’t let anyone talk to you. Put all your attention to that sweet you are eating and fully enjoy it and remember the taste. Make it last in your mouth. If it’s something that is a few bites, like a piece of cake or small dish of ice cream, do this for each bite and pause between bites. If you are eating with someone else and you are talking, then talk in between bites. What often happens to me is if I’m enjoying something so much, I shovel it in because it’s so good, then the last bite is the one that tastes the best because it’s the only one I’ve had a chance to take a breath after. That makes me want more. Oh, one more thing: at a party, if given the choice between homemade and store bought, I always go with the homemade!!

6. Allow yourself to get used to the real taste of things, without the extra added sugar. I grew up putting tons of sugar on my grapefruit for breakfast!! Now, when I eat a grapefruit without sugar, I can actually taste the darn thing. And it’s pretty good! Learn to love your oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins and maybe some coconut oil drizzled over the top. Expect that it might be a slightly different taste, but remind yourself that you are doing yourself a huge favor out of love and respect for your body because you want to feel great both mentally and physically. You’ll get used to it, (and learn to like it!) I promise. One thing I’ve noticed too is that a good green juice with a little apple in it cuts the sweets craving big time. Try it!

7. Eat enough of the good stuff. Don’t stuff yourself, but eat enough protein, fats and good carbs at your meals so that you don’t have cravings for sugar on a regular basis (every day at 4 pm…sound familiar???). Having a non-fat salad for lunch won’t do you any good if you can’t live without your mid-afternoon venti white chocolate mocha. Eating a little protein and/or healthy fat at each meal will help keep your blood sugar steady.

8. Find other ways to nurture yourself. Call a friend, take a bath, relax with a great book, have some green tea or a piece of amazing dark chocolate rich in antioxidants and savor it. Sometimes sweets are our only “fun” thing that we get to indulge in all day. That’s fine, but also make sure you are doing other non-food related things you enjoy just as much!

9. Read labels. Sugar is in things you don’t even think of as sweets. Breads, crackers, tomato sauces, baked beans, soups. High fructose corn syrup is a cheap version of sugar that is in many food products. Anything ending in –ose (sucralose, maltose, etc.) is sugar. It’s more important than ever right now to understand what you are spending your hard earned money on. Whether or not you consider yourself a food activist, when you buy something you are sending a message that you approve, you want this product to continue to be available. Read labels and put your money where your fork goes.

10. MOST IMPORTANT: When you do eat sweets, go for the real thing. When you do eat something sweet, please, please choose your poison carefully. Sugar substitutes like Splenda, Sweet n Low, aspartame, and Equal might be approved by the FDA but that doesn’t mean they are completely free and clear from dangers and side effects – especially when given to children or used on a regular/frequent basis. Click here and here to read more about artificial sweeteners. Stevia is a great all natural sweetener. It’s an all natural herb extract that doesn’t affect blood sugar levels.
All this being said, I think it’s important to emphasize that when taken in moderation, natural sweeteners are better than artificial. Even though sweeteners like maple syrup, honey, fruit juice concentrate, molasses and agave nectar will affect your blood sugar, contain some minerals and they are at least found in nature and are a more wholesome alternative to processed white sugar and artificial sweeteners. I feel a heck of a lot better about giving them to my family and eating them myself than anything else.

Good luck with your sugar journey!

Keep me posted and be well,

Danielle