How to Stop Sugar Cravings
The best way to address sugar cravings is.. one moment, I shall get back to this soon.
You have probably heard at one time or another that sugar will prolong the life of cut flowers. I certainly have, and being curious about whether or not it is true, I decided to run a few unscientific tests. I was quite sure that this was just another one of those myths we all hear, so imagine my surprise when I found that a little bit of sugar does indeed seem to prolong the life of cut flowers. However, I learned later that if you add too much sugar, the flowers will actually die earlier.
So how about us humans? Does sugar intake have such effects on people? You must be asking yourself what this has to do with ‘best way to stop sugar cravings’. Hiding in your foods in many forms and names sugar proves to be quite tricky. Sure, it is possible to use techniques to better control sugar cravings, but what difference does it make if we do not know sugar exists in a given food?
The typical American eats a whopping 74 pounds of added sugar every year according to some estimates. This equates to eating 23 tablespoons of sugar on a daily basis. Some experts put this figure much higher approaching more than 150 pounds of sugar on an annual basis. Whichever figure is correct, this represents far more sugar than required by the human body which needs approximately two teaspoons of sugar at any one given time. This sheds light on why obesity is at its peak in America. You virtually need to become a “sugar-detective” just to recognize all the names representing sugar: Cane juice, caramel, corn syrup, dextran, dextrose, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, invert sugar, lactose, malt syrup, maltodextrin, maltose, mannitol, molasses, raw sugar, refiners syrup, sorbitol, sorghum syrup, sucrose, and yellow sugar. That exhaustive list is not even a complete rundown of all the various forms of sugar we encounter on a daily basis.
Taste for Life magazine explains that the control of sugar cravings can be achieved by following these simple guidelines: Don’t put sugar on your cereal or in drinks. If you must sweeten your food, try adding a small amount of the sweet herb Stevia. Stay away from things like white bread, white pasta and white rice since these contain processed carbohydrates which are rapidly converted to blood sugar, which disrupts the body’s metabolic balance and fat-control systems. Eat whole foods.
Fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts, and whole grains contain some naturally occurring sugars, but they also offer dietary fiber and important nutrients to help balance blood sugar. The More Natural, The Better. Choose an orange, rather than orange juice. Not only will you get less sugar, but you’ll also benefit from more nutrients. Dilute Natural Sweets, like juice, with pure water.
Granola lovers can add nuts and whole grain unsweetened cereal to limit sugar consumption. Fat-free labels are often deceptive. Many of these foods actually add to weight and health issues. Not indicated on the labels is the fact that these products often contain twice the sugar than the “regular” version of the same product.