How to break the sugar cravings
30 July 2015
Arriving in 1985 to live in the UK for the first time, I remember being struck by the sheer volume of sweets and chocolate bars on offer. In Italy there were Mars Bars and that was about it. I also remember being astounded by the way so many of my new girlfriends – I was at an all girls’ boarding school – would make daily trips to the tuck shop (a new concept for me) and stock up on all manner of chocolates and sweet treats, all to be devoured that very day. At the time (I was 15) I promised myself that I would never be like that.
But sugar is addictive...
Growing up in Italy in the 70s and 80s was a world apart. My mother would buy meat from the butchers in the village, get our vegetables – vibrant courgette flowers and twisted, misshapen red peppers – from the next village along and our garden was awash with figs, grapes, apples, peaches, walnuts, cherries and pears.
Food in the UK was so different: I was introduced to white sliced bread in plastic packs, jam sandwiches for afternoon tea, commercial cereals for breakfast, and puddings after meals were the norm.
I fell for it…for a while.
People call it having a sweet tooth.
Are you a sugar addict?
Have a think about the following questions:
Do you find yourself hunting around the kitchen for a bit of a treat (AKA biscuits) after your evening meal?
Do you get a bout of the 4 o’clock munchies just when it is time to prepare food for the kids?
Do you feel as though a meal is incomplete if you haven’t rounded off with a pudding?
Is something missing if a cuppa doesn’t come with a slice of cake or cookie?
Perhaps you answered “no” to all of the above, so let me ask you this instead:
Do your meals feel lacking if they don’t have a fair portion of either bread, pasta, rice or potato accompanying them?
Nothing sweet about those options… is there?
Well, think again.
Good sugar versus bad sugar?
We are increasingly being told to make healthy swaps:
- Add honey to porridge rather than sugar!
- Snack on fruit rather than cake!
- Replace your white bread with brown, and your pasta with wholemeal pasta!
- Have a homemade smoothie rather than a glass of fruit juice!
But when it comes to your body, sugar is essentially sugar.
The body makes little if any distinction.
Carbohydrates (rice, pasta, bread, potatoes…) are converted to sugar by the body.
Fruit is full of vitamins but the body will also register sweetness from the fruit as sugar.
Honey contains health-giving properties but the body will respond to it as sugar.
Take a look at your day on a plate
Breakfast
Commercial cereal = sugar
Toast, even wholemeal = converted to sugar
Porridge oats = converted to sugar (more slowly)
Homemade grain-based granola with dried fruit = sugar
Fruit and veg smoothie = the fruit is registered as sugar
Mid-morning snack
Perhaps you don’t have one – great!
A piece of fruit = sugar
A commercial cereal bar = sugar
A natural cereal bar made of blended dried fruit and nuts = sugar
Rice or oat cakes = body converts to sugar
And then there are all the usual mid-morning suspects (biscuits, chocolate bar etc)
Lunch
Sandwich = the body converts the bread to sugar
Jacket potato = the body converts to sugar
Pasta or rice salad = converted to sugar
Readymade soup – they have lots of added sugar (have a look next time)
Round off lunch with a fruit, flavoured yogurt or a treat = more sugar!
Late afternoon snack
If you find yourself regularly afflicted by the 4 o’clock munchies this can often lead to sugar-loaded snacking.
Evening meal
What is your evening meal “staple” i.e. the carbs?
We are probably back to the rice, pasta, bread and potato quartet = converted to sugar.
Round off supper with a pudding, fruit, flavoured yogurt or all of these? More sugar…
All in all, that is a lot of sugar that your body has to cope with in one day!
How to break the sugar cycle step by step
Don’t try and change everything at once.
Change one thing at a time so that it is doable. Follow this step by step guide, only implementing one step at a time and in the order I give. Allow yourself time to adjust between each step.
Step 1
Make breakfast your first change so that the body doesn’t get a sugar fix first thing in the morning. Change breakfast and try:
- Mixed vegetable omelette using a variety of steamed veg (from yesterday evening’s meal) and three eggs.
- Or try 200g of Quark, a palmful of raw nuts and a handful of blueberries. The protein from the quark and fat from the nuts will reduce the sugary impact of the blueberries.
- Or soak a few tablespoons of chia seeds in your favourite milk (I love coconut milk) and add a few blueberries or strawberries.
Step 2
Test over a few days to see how your new breakfast regime leaves you feeling mid-morning. Still need a snack? Brew a pot of peppermint tea and have a few cups. Still need a snack? Think raw veg sticks with humus or a dip made of quark and pesto.
Step 3
Add a really good portion of protein into every main meal (breakfast, lunch and supper): chicken, salmon, white fish, tuna, quark (minimum 200g), eggs (3 is 1 portion). Over the next few days see how this makes you feel mid-morning, later afternoon and late evening. Less hungry? Fewer cravings?
Step 4
Add lots and LOTS of vegetables into your day, every day. What do I mean by lots? OK, so your plate needs to be at least ¾ piles high with a variety of colourful vegetables and deep, dark greens.
How to do it?
- I treat vegetables the many think of pasta or rice: a bowl of pasta topped with Bolognese sauce becomes a bowl of mixed vegetables
topped with Bolognese sauce. A plate of rice and curry becomes a plate of mixed greens and curry. - Smoothies. Quick to drink. No endless chomping through a vast salad if you are in a hurry at lunch. BUT remember that it should have 1 portion of fruit (1 apple or 1 banana for example) and the rest (¾) should be vegetable (spinach, kale, celery). And don’t forget to have some protein and fat as well, otherwise you’ll get hungry (avocado, quark, raw nut and seeds).
Step 5
Assess how these changes are making you feel. Notice that I haven’t told you to cut anything out but just add goodness in. That’s nice1 How are the cravings going? Are you reaching for the biscuit tin as often?
Step 6
Keep going and now add more water into your day: morning, afternoon and evening.
Step 7
Go easy with fruit and when you do eat it, always have it alongside your main meal and never as a standalone snack. This will reduce the effect on your blood sugar levels.
Step 8
How are you feeling now? Have you adjusted to all these additions to your day on a plate? If so, it’s time to take the next big step and start removing certain things.
Step 9
Let’s start with sugary drinks:
- Fizzy drinks (pure evil!)
- Diet fizzy drinks (they trick the body and you will crave sugar)
- Sweetened hot drinks (either with sugar, honey or artificial sweetener)
- Pure fruit juices (they are a sugar injection)
- Commerical fruit smoothies
- Ehm… alcohol (full of sugar)
Remove them all.
Go cold turkey.
Persist and be brave.
Drink more water, more herbal infusions, more green tea… and an occasional glass of really good red wine if you wish.
Step 10
It’s time to tackle the BIG ONE!
Carbohydrates: rice, pasta, bread and potatoes.
Replace with: quinoa, buckwheat, pulses and sweet potatoes
Make these carb alternatives ¼ of your lunch and supper, alongside loads of vegetables and a portion of protein.
Finally, it takes at the very least a week to break the cycle of cravings. So take your time working through from Step 1 to Step 10 and when you reach Step 10, give yourself a minimum of 1 whole week to adjust.
Commit to riding out that week.
After all, what is one week of discomfort in exchange for a lifetime of good health and freedom from cravings?