7 Questions to Help Deconstruct Your Sugar or Carb Cravings

By Laura Thomas

 

Cravings aren’t fun, I know. They can dominate your thoughts, take over your day and make you restless. Getting the better of your sugar or carb cravings, starts with a bit of analysis and a number of thought provoking questions. Here are some simple questions to ask yourself when you find you would literally bend over backwards for that warm chocolate chip cookie.

1. Have you eaten in the last 4-5 hours?

If you haven’t eaten in a few hours, chances are the cravings could be linked to low blood sugar. Fill up on a meal or get hold of a protein rich snack. Nuts, cheese, carrots and hummus are all good choices.

2. Are you thirsty?

Dehydration can often cause cravings. Get a large glass of water down and wait 20 minutes to see if your body was in fact craving hydration.

3. Are you tired?

Lacking in the sleep department is a quick-fire way to bring about sugar and carbohydrate cravings. Ensuring you get enough sleep should be your number one health priority if you’re seriously trying to overcome your cravings and don’t want to be on the back foot before you even get out of bed. When I was dominated by sugar, a lack of sleep would nearly almost certainly have me craving hot chocolate at 10:00 am for that extra energy boost.

4. Are you bored?

If you aren’t tired or hungry, are you simply craving distraction? If you work at home or in an office, we often want a break from the computer. Visiting the cafeteria can often feel like the default response. First, rank your true hunger from 1-10 and then try doing something else for 20 minutes. Give someone a phone call, catch up on some social media sites or go for a walk outside.

5. Is it lifestyle imbalance?

Ask yourself if your emotions are driving your cravings? Has it been a bad day? Do you want something to make you feel good, a quick fix of happy hormones? If you’ve got used to relying on food as a quick emotional ‘pick me up’ then you may need to look at how you enhance more fundamental elements of your lifestyle to fill the void. Is there a new hobby you could take up? Is your relationship working? Do you need to make a change to your career or work?

6. Could it be hormonal?

Hormones can have very strong influences on cravings for some individuals. If you suspect this might be the case, start keeping a diary to track any patterns so you can improve your understanding and start to anticipate your strongest cravings. When you know they’re due, prepare substitutions and distractions in advance.

7. Do you really want ‘something’?

If your craving is still there with a vengeance, and a walk round the block isn’t doing it for you, you may just need to substitute. A cup of chai tea with extra cinnamon, some sweet cashew nuts or indulgent full fat natural yogurt are all things that got me through some of my most stubborn cravings. Find your own favorite substitutions, use them consistently and eventually you’ll start craving your healthier alternatives.

Bio
Laura Thomas is a holistic health coach who specializes in sugar addiction, helping individuals get control over their sugary habits so they can live in peace without the burden of daily cravings. A former sugar addict herself, Laura understands the emotional and social difficulties of re-wiring your sugar habits. Sign up to Happy Sugar Habits for a free low sugar snack guide and six months worth of weekly sugar-busting tips.

Curb Carb Cravings to Reduce Health Risks

Dr. Julian Whitaker

By Julian Whitaker MD
(courtesy of Citizens for Health)

Do you get intense carbohydrate cravings? Are there times when you just have to have a snack or can’t resist a cookie? These cravings are not just a road to an expanding waistline – they are also a warning sign. Carbohydrate cravings are often associated with insulin resistance, which in turn is a precursor to type 2 diabetes.

In individuals who have insulin resistance, the beta cells in the pancreas make plenty of insulin – the hormone that moves glucose from the blood into the cells – but the cells are unresponsive to insulin’s actions, leading to a rise in blood sugar. The pancreas responds by churning out more insulin, but it may overshoot the mark, driving blood sugar too low and creating an immediate demand for more glucose. This often manifests as carbohydrate cravings.

Unfortunately, when you heed the call, a vicious cycle is set into motion. More glucose demands more insulin, and over time, your body’s blood sugar-regulating mechanisms cannot keep up and signs of insulin resistance become more prominent.

Part of the problem is that chronically elevated levels of insulin, which are characteristic of insulin resistance, promote weight gain. That’s because insulin is the body’s primary fat-storage hormone – it ushers fat as well as glucose into the cells. So the higher your insulin level, the greater your potential weight gain.

To make matters worse, obesity throws fuel on the fire. Adipose tissue (fat), especially in the abdominal area, releases fatty acids that impair beta-cell function and insulin sensitivity, as well as immune cells that lead to chronic, low-grade inflammation. Inflammation, in turn, increases insulin resistance and risk of diabetes.

The answer to the problem is to interrupt this insidious cycle as early as possible. Start with your diet. Sweets, potatoes, bread, pasta, and most everything made with sugar or refined grains – think white foods – have a high glycemic index and load. This means they rapidly drive up blood glucose but may be followed a couple of hours later by reactive hypoglycemia, a compensatory blood sugar dive that makes you tired, sluggish, and so hungry you feel like you could eat anything in sight.

To avoid this very common phenomenon, eat more fiber-rich vegetables and beans and include some protein with every meal. These foods are not only bulky, filling, and lower in calories, but because they cause a gradual rise in blood sugar, they’ll keep you going longer and are less apt to stimulate food cravings.

There are also some interesting supplements that can help control cravings. One of them is saffron, a bright yellow culinary spice that has been used in traditional medicine to tame inflammation and ease digestive woes. Saffron helps raise levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that boosts mood, influences hunger and satiety, and helps put the brakes on food cravings – especially for carbohydrates. This makes saffron a real boon for people trying to lose weight.

Look for saffron supplements in your health food store. You can also purchase my Saffron Snack Stopper by visiting www.drwhitaker.com or by calling 800-722-8008. Aim for the study dosage of 90 mg twice a day with meals. Note: It can take up to four weeks to see results, so be patient.

Another supplement for carb cravings is 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP). A direct precursor to serotonin, 5-HTP boosts levels of this important neurotransmitter and helps curb carb cravings. This supplement is particularly helpful for people with hormonal imbalances and those eating low-calorie diets, particularly low-protein diets, which may not provide enough of the amino acids required for serotonin production. The suggested dose is 50 to 100 mg, taken between meals. Do not take 5-HTP if you are on an SSRI antidepressant.

The most important tool for reversing insulin resistance (and potential diabetes) is weight loss, and reducing cravings is an important step toward that end. So stock up on fiber-rich foods, eat protein at every meal, and try supplemental saffron and 5-HTP, and you just may be able to keep carbohydrate binges at bay.

About Dr. Whitaker. Dr. Whitaker is Director of the Whitaker Wellness Institute and Editor of Health and Healing newsletter that provides important health advice for more than 500,000 people nationwide. Dr. Whitaker graduated from Dartmouth College in 1966 and received his MD in 1970 from Emory University Medical School. He completed his surgical internship at Grady Memorial Hospital in 1971, and continued at the University of California in San Francisco in orthopedic surgery. In 1974, Dr. Whitaker founded the California Orthomolecular Medical Society, along with four other physicians and the Nobel prize-winning scientist Dr. Linus Pauling. Dr. Whitaker is the author of several books including the best-selling Shed 10 Years in 10 Weeks. 

In the land of (real) women

By James J. Gormley

Spring Break is fast approaching and many young women (not to mention, lots of men) are alternately looking at the calendar and peeking at the mirror, worried that they will not be able to fit into that swimsuit that’s two sizes too small that was bought as an “incentive” after New Year’s Eve.

Bikini Anxiety 101
What’s with all of this bikini anxiety? As I pointed out in 1999, in an article called “Giving Barbie the ‘Boot’ ”: (1) real women have different body types than do most fashion models, who are often emaciated and (2) typical diets don’t work. In addition,  the Barbie body-myth acculturation is now beginning in very young girls who should, arguably, be excited about many things -- such as science, math, sports, and jump-rope -- but not about losing weight!

Rachel Caplin, author of I’m Beautiful, Dammit! Waging Your Own Curvolution and co-founder of Curvolution, a Calif.-based entertainment company that’s working to put real women, of all sizes, into the media, said in a 2006 interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “The fact that it’s bathing suit season doesn’t mean that this is the moment in time where you have to be what the season is telling you to be.”

Our society’s bathing suit obsession becomes even clearer when we look at a few stats on women, girls, and weight extracted from the book, The 7 Secrets of Slim People, by Vikki Hansen, M.S.W., and Shawn Goodman.

I learned from authors Hansen and Goodman that “young girls are more afraid of becoming fat than they are of nuclear war, cancer, and losing their parents,” then it makes me more determined than ever to try to encourage my (trim) teenaged daughter to enjoy her summer and not get sucked into the dysfunctional body-type vortex that surrounds us.

Fitness Anxiety too?
Adding to bikini anxiety is its kissing cousin, fitness anxiety: Are we buff enough? Although we can sometimes feel stress as we unfairly judge ourselves by looking at the aerobics instructor next to us on the StairMaster®, we might not be aware that many everyday activities --- including shopping at the mall! --- really help us to be more fit and burn more calories each day.

For example, did you know that 25 minutes of brisk walking at the mall (the best way to avoid buying too much!) or 30 minutes of washing windows burn the same amount of calories as 20 minutes of medium aerobics or 20 minutes of tennis? Better yet: did you know that 30 minutes of mowing the lawn (although be careful in the heat) or 45 minutes of washing dishes offer the same calorie-burning as the aerobics? All true.  That’s what I call putting things in perspective.

So what if it gives us another excuse to go to the mall!