How to get rid of cravings for sweets and starchy foods? How to overcome addiction to sweets.

Sweets are the most insidious temptation. It’s rare that a person can say that he doesn’t feel any feeling when he sees confectionery or sweets. Moreover, sweet addiction can often be compared not to a beautiful cupcake or delicious chocolate, but rather to a real sugar binge. So, how to get rid of addiction to sweets?

An irresistible craving for sweets is based on biochemical processes occurring in the body: sudden jump Blood glucose may trigger the need for a new “dose” of sugar. At the same time, the figure suffers not so much due to sweets, but due to “related products” - white flour and various fats, which are contained in large quantities in cream, glaze or topping.

Is it possible to escape sugar addiction?

Sweet tooth is an addiction

Over the past decades, addiction to sweets has become a very hot topic not only in everyday life, but also in science. The research results are frightening: scientists claim that a lover of sweets is the same as a drug addict, because sweetness is not only a fleeting pleasure, but also leads to serious addiction, which often has a very detrimental effect on health.

Sweets trigger the production of the joy hormone

The main reasons for the love of sweets and options for dealing with them:

Hunger. If a person is hungry, then in his blood occurs sharp decline sugar level. This moment is not only a medical indicator, but also an indicator of the performance of the body as a whole. The lower the sugar level, the more tired the human body feels.
Compensation. The roots of this reason lie not in the need for sweets, but in the search for sweet sensations - love and intimate moments associated with it. The only thing that can help in this situation is understanding that one sweet is very different from another.
Hungry brain. Normal performance of this body should be provided with fast carbohydrates, which can be obtained by eating sweets or fruits. The brain cannot eat other foods, so completely eliminating sweets is not recommended even during a diet. And if intense mental work takes place, then the brain needs stable nutrition. By the way, if the number of goodies is limited, then the brain begins to demand them several times more strongly. The solution lies on the surface - you just need to replace sweets with healthy carbohydrates: honey, marshmallows, marshmallows, dried fruits and sweet fruits. But it is better to avoid sugar and sweetener substitutes. It is not at all necessary to completely get rid of your addiction to sweets and starchy foods; you just need to eat them less often and only in the first half of the day.
White monkey effect. As soon as you forbid yourself to even think about sweets, you will begin to observe reverse effect. Complete exclusion of treats can only be achieved if there is absolute indifference to them.
Hormone of joy. Every person wants to be happy, and sweets are the fastest and in a simple way achieving a feeling of happiness. But you can make up for the lack of the joy hormone by eating some other foods, for example, oranges, nuts, dates, tangerines, persimmons or cheese. Even greater pleasure can be achieved through feasible physical activity and healthy rest, because the taste of chocolate is incomparable to skating or swimming. The second option, in addition to joy, also involves a feeling of pride. A favorite hobby, an exciting journey and communication with pleasant people will bring no less joy.

The Secret of Sugar's Attractiveness

Why do we like sweets

Sucrose is a disaccharide or simple carbohydrate. The body is able to very quickly separate glucose and fructose from sucrose that enters the bloodstream. Almost everyone knows what can significantly invigorate brain activity You can do it with one small piece of candy. Human body cannot work without glucose - a reliable and irreplaceable source of energy.

The first recipient of glucose is the brain. Then it passes into the muscles, kidneys and other organs. Thanks to insulin, glucose “flows” into every cell and, in the process of “burning,” replenishes the body’s energy supply.

Note!
If there is too much glucose in the cells, it begins to turn into body fat.

Effect of sugar

The unstoppable craving for sweets is also explained by the rapid absorption of sucrose. Due to a sharp increase in sugar concentration and insulin release, “carbohydrate starvation” occurs: absorption occurred too quickly, which means more is needed. But the human body, unfortunately, is not capable of independently understanding that there is already enough energy for the normal functioning of the body. A new “bright flash” of blood sugar leads to a new attack of “sugar hunger”, which ends in a vicious circle. But despite the universality of cravings for sweets, it mainly depends on individual inclinations.

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A few more facts about the dangers of sugar:

Practical psychologists in their work often have to face the problem food addiction at the client's. People who have become hostages of receiving food do not know how to give up sweets and starchy foods. positive emotions from eating delicious foods.

Sweets and baked goods are at the same time beautiful, tasty, associated with warmth, comfort and coziness, and besides, they also bring a lot of joy and delicacy. Well, how can you resist and not eat a piece of a beautiful and pleasantly smelling cake or pie?!

The problem of addiction to sweets and starchy foods is widespread and for many insoluble.

What determines the need for sweets and starchy foods? The fact is that such products contain carbohydrates– the main source of energy in the human body. When 1 gram of carbohydrates is burned, 4 kcal of energy is released. It is impossible to completely eliminate sweets and starchy foods; without these products you simply cannot survive.

Health problems begin when a person eats too many carbohydrates. Particularly dangerous simple carbohydrates. They, unlike complex carbohydrates, are absorbed quickly and easily, which is why they are also called fast. But if you eat too many of them, then after some of them are used up for energy, some are stored as glycogen for muscle work, and the rest are stored as fat.

obesity,
diabetes mellitus,
dental caries,
atherosclerosis,
skin diseases,
decreased immunity,
cardiovascular diseases.

The problem is that it is very easy to eat more carbohydrates than you should! After eating one piece of chocolate, it is difficult to get enough of it; now the entire bar has already been eaten, and your hunger is still not satisfied; on the contrary, your appetite has increased even more.

The rate of carbohydrate consumption varies depending on the physical activity and lifestyle of a person from 300 to 500 grams per day (1,200 – 2,000 kcal). A bar of milk chocolate contains approximately 25.4 g of carbohydrates, that is, 547 kcal, which is about a third of the daily requirement!

Only the need to work hard can justify the use of simple carbohydrates. For example, if you eat a piece of cake and then go and “work it out” in the gym, fat is unlikely to be deposited, since all the energy will be used up.

Simple carbohydrates contained in sugar and, accordingly, in all sugar-containing products, in honey, jam, cakes, cookies and all other confectionery products, in carbonated sweet drinks, white bread, white rice, sweet fruits and vegetables.

More often addiction It is caused by foods containing fast carbohydrates - sweet and starchy treats. They become a real “drug” because the sugar they contain stimulates the production of happiness hormones – endorphins.

The body begins to demand a tasty “dose” and suffers if it is not there. A person accustomed to receiving a boost of energy and Have a good mood When eating a chocolate bar, she will get angry, nervous and lash out at loved ones if suddenly her favorite sweet is not at hand. This is how a habit turns into an addiction.

It is better to replenish the body’s energy reserves not with simple, but complex carbohydrates. Only complex carbohydrates. They break down slowly and are practically not stored in body fat, unless, of course, you overeat them. But even if you overeat such foods, the harm to your health and figure will be much less than from simple carbohydrates.

Complex carbohydrates are found in beans, vegetables (tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, etc.), oatmeal, buckwheat, potatoes, bread coarse and other products.

Causes of food addiction

Overcoming cravings for sweets and flour is more difficult for some people, easier for others. Some people eat as much candy and sandwiches as they want and remain thin, but plump, even following strict diet, can't lose weight. It all depends on the reasons that caused the addiction and the characteristics of the human body.

There is an opinion that the key to the success of any diet is willpower, and the main problem of people with overweight- immoderation in eating. This is true, but only partly.

The fact is that cause excessive addiction to sweets and starchy foods can become:

metabolic disease;
lack of chromium, magnesium, calcium and others important microelements, maintaining blood glucose levels;
hormonal disorders(eg insulin resistance);
hereditary predisposition to addiction to sweets;
consequences of concussion, hypotension, osteochondrosis (due to insufficient blood supply to the brain there is not enough glucose).

A signal that a sweet tooth is based on health problems may be the fact that a piece of candy or a bun becomes "tablet" from a physical illness, such as a headache.

A person begins to feel better after eating sweet product due to the fact that the simple carbohydrates it contains are very quickly broken down into glucose and delivered as an emergency energy boost to the body.

It becomes clear that to eliminate physiological reasons love for sweets willpower alone will not be enough; you will need the help of a doctor.

To the number psychological reasons Sweet addictions include:

the habit formed in childhood of receiving sweets as encouragement and reward for work;
habit of "eating" negative emotions: sadness, anxiety, fear, self-doubt;
the habit of “eating” stress, failures, troubles at work and at home, conflicts and simply Bad mood;
the “forbidden fruit” effect - what is forbidden is what you want most.

Dependency mechanism from sweets and starchy foods is based on the habit of treating delicious food as a source of joy, happiness and pleasure, and not as food. Yes, indeed, sweetness can lift your spirits, give you optimism and self-confidence, due to the fact that it stimulates the production of happiness hormones, but this is a temporary and short-term measure.

A cake or bun will not solve the problem; the food will be eaten (and most likely over permissible norm), A psychological problem will remain unresolved.

Nutritionists allow the consumption of simple carbohydrates, but in very small quantities, approximately 5% from total number norms of consumed carbohydrates. It is not forbidden to treat yourself to a spoonful of honey or a slice of dark dark chocolate once a day, the main thing is to know when to stop.

How to get rid of cravings for sweets and starchy foods

If the problem of food addiction lies only in psychological reasons, you can overcome it yourself. Of course, you will have to have patience and willpower. The most difficult thing is to start, the further you go, the easier it is to give up sweets and starchy foods, to the point of complete indifference to such products.

The following will help you cope with your addiction to sweets and starchy foods: recommendations:

Change your attitude towards food. People need food to maintain the vitality of the body and nothing more. The fact that it helps to cope with stress, cheer up, and give self-confidence is only a temporary illusion.

When eating, you need to think about food, not about problems. Many people talk at the table or watch TV. These habits also lead to overeating.

More can be applied radical methods: start to relate to junk food like poison or something unpleasant. If you take an interest in the peculiarities of the production of confectionery products and their composition, it will not be so difficult to change your attitude towards such products.

communication with positive people,
play, including with children and animals,
doing what you love, hobbies, creativity,
reading an exciting book,
playing sports, any other physical activity,
hugs, kisses, lovemaking, etc.

The main thing is that the new “drug” does not become as excessive and harmful as the previous one. You can become addicted to anything that brings you pleasure. In this regard, a workaholic who loves his job is no different from a lover of sweets. The difference is that the first addiction has more benefits than problems, while the second addiction brings only problems.

Healthy sleep. Another important condition that allows you to successfully get rid of addiction. Lack of sleep encourages you to eat more sweets and starchy foods so that you have enough energy to get through the whole working day.

If you can’t get rid of food addiction on your own, a psychologist can help. By far the most popular destination in psychology, neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is used to help solve the problem of overeating.

Read about overcoming food addiction:

Jacob Teitelbaum, Krystle Fiedler “No Sugar. A scientifically proven and proven program to eliminate sugar from your diet.”
Oleg Freidman “Your freedom! How to get rid of addiction and find the way to yourself”
Tatyana Trofimenko “How to overcome any addiction? Healing with information”
Frank B. Minearth “The Drug Called Food”
Giorgio Nardone “Captive of food. Vomiting, anorexia, bulimia. Short-term therapy for eating disorders”
Irina Lopatukhina “ProFood Slave. Psychology of Slimness” and “Slaves to Food? Slave revolt!”
Marion Woodman

Sweets, flour and baked goods are indeed quite addictive in the literal sense of the word - no matter how scary it may sound. A person gets used to sugar both physically (the natural taste of products begins to seem too bland) and psychologically (eating problems with candy and other sweets is a common occurrence).

However, excessive sugar consumption not only harms your figure and leads to excess weight gain, but also disrupts and even provokes depression. Fortunately, there is good news - giving up sugar and sweets is much easier than fighting an addiction to alcohol or nicotine. In addition, the result of this failure will manifest itself very quickly.

Why do sweets make you fat?

The problem with sweets is not only the high calorie content. A spoonful of sugar in tea contains only 20-25 kcal - however, such tea can cause a feeling of hunger, forcing you to look for a “snack”. At first, sugar will sharply increase the level of glucose in the blood, but after half an hour this level will decrease - while symptoms low level glucose

If you try to “kill the worm” with another cookie, then the glucose level will again first increase and then decrease, bringing even more severe hunger. The situation will be aggravated by the fact that regular changes in blood glucose levels will disrupt metabolism, making the body less sensitive to insulin and provoking the development of diabetes.

How to give up sugar in 21 days

Quitting sugar is gradual process. Expect that you will need approximately 3-4 weeks to combat acute phase dependencies. After this time, you will begin to look at sugar calmly, allowing yourself sweets from time to time, but without breaking into overeating. The benefit will also be that you will most likely be able to reduce body weight.

First week: give up sugary sodas and juices (FitSeven wrote that even freshly squeezed fruit juice is good), stop adding a few teaspoons of sugar to your tea and coffee. If you can't drink black tea completely without sugar, drink it with a drop of honey (but not with a sweetener) or switch to herbal teas. It is acceptable to drink coffee with milk.
Second week: Get rid of your sweets, stop buying new sweets and reconsider your eating habits. Keep candy, chocolate and cookies out of sight, especially in the kitchen or near your work area. Remember that they are not at all a “safe” substitute for sweets and contain a large amount of sugar.
Third week: Learn to see the “hidden sugar”. Pay attention to the composition of the products (breakfast cereals, ketchup and other sauces contain sugar), and also study its synonyms - food manufacturers are often misleading by labeling them “sugar-free”, but using substances related to sugar. , glucose, maltodexin, dextrose, sucrose, agave nectar, honey - all this is sugar.

“I can’t refuse sweets...”

Typical consequences abrupt refusal Sugar causes a bad mood and a feeling of clouded consciousness. If in the first days it seems to you that all your thoughts are exclusively about sweets, you cannot concentrate and there is a fog in your head, then everything is fine and your body is recovering. He just needs to get used to it reduced level blood sugar.

Do not use sweeteners - they will only remind the brain of how pleasant sweet taste can be. In acute moments of withdrawal, take a hot shower, do some cleaning, or go for a walk. The ideal solution would be one that will literally bring you back to life. It is also important that cardio is The best way return insulin to normal.

Is fructose really... safe replacement table sugar? Why does it cause obesity in healthy people?

Benefits and consequences of quitting sugar

Contrary to a common myth beloved by those with a sweet tooth, the human brain does not need sugar to function - the body is able to synthesize glucose from complex carbohydrates. In other words, no negative consequences giving up sugar simply cannot happen. The main thing positive consequence There will be an improvement in well-being and a reduction in body weight.

The main health benefit of giving up sugar and sweets is that after a week you will learn to distinguish a real feeling of hunger from a “fake” one caused by sudden changes blood glucose levels. Essentially, you'll simply start eating less without experiencing any of the discomfort associated with dieting or calorie restriction.

Is it necessary to give up sugar completely?

Since it is almost impossible to completely give up foods that contain sugar or other sugars in one form or another, it is better to learn to be as calm as possible about their periodic consumption in adequate quantities. However, it is important to see sweets not so much as a source of pleasure or reward, but rather as a “moderately dangerous poison.”

If you eat one small cake or drink a cup of coffee with sugar, nothing fatal will happen to you, but eating chocolate candies boxes or eating a bucket of ice cream in front of the TV is a completely different matter. Remember that it is not so much sugar itself that is harmful to health, but its regular and excessive consumption.

***

Quitting sugar is a gradual process of fighting addiction, as a result of which you must, first of all, change your attitude towards sweets to be as indifferent as possible. After all, in fact, it is not so much the sugar itself that is harmful, but its regular use(even in small quantities) and “eating” with sweets for various emotional problems.

Craving for sweets is one of the most insidious temptations. Rarely lucky women can walk past the window of a candy store with their chin held high and refuse a candy or two for tea. However, sweet addiction does not always take the refined form of a beautiful cupcake or a delicious chocolate bar: often a craving for sweets turns into a real sugar binge without measure and analysis. How to break out of this captivity?

Sweet cravings: don't hide, don't hide!

Sweet cravings for last decades has become a hot topic not only in everyday life, but also in science. The research data is truly frightening: scientists are increasingly comparing sugar lovers to drug addicts, warning that sweets not only provide fleeting pleasure, but are also addictive, ultimately ruining your health.

Meanwhile, industrial history sugar is only a little over two hundred years old. IN early XIX century in Russia they established the production of beet sugar, and since then our diet has become sweeter and sweeter.

In the middle of the 19th century, the average European ate only two kilos of pure sugar per year; at the beginning of the 20th century, this figure increased to 17 kg per year, and by the first years of the new millennium it was already almost 40 kg per year per capita.

Today, there are many types of sugar on the market, differing in both “pedigree” and appearance. Most often (and, apparently, quite deservedly) “demonized” is white refined sugar, which has greatest distribution how in Food Industry, and in home cooking.

In fact, white store-bought sugar is pure sucrose - chemical element, purified using filters made from burnt cattle bones. The process of producing white sugar turns it into a sterile product from the point of view of dietary value, the uncontrolled consumption of which negatively affects the immune system, the intestinal microflora, the condition of the teeth, and the effective absorption of essential microelements.

Thanks to its ability to dissolve completely in various substances and enhance the taste of food, refined sugar - secretly or overtly - is becoming a major ingredient in many industrially manufactured foods. These include not only confectionery and baked goods, but also sodas, juices, sauces, fermented milk and dairy products, meat and offal products, all kinds of semi-finished products. Doctors attribute the current “epidemic” of insulin resistance to the fact that our diet is oversaturated with quickly digestible carbohydrates, of which sucrose comes first. Which leads to various heart diseases, obesity, type 2 diabetes.

Sadly, often the product sold as brown cane sugar is simply refined sugar coated with molasses, a by-product of sugar production. Molasses itself has many benefits, including high content copper, however, as part of such “disguised” sugar, it brings tangible benefits only to cunning sellers who use “ecological” Brown color to increase the cost of the product.

Original unrefined cane sugar, gently refined or not subjected to industrial refinement at all, in addition to sucrose, contains many useful additions such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron. However, its calorie content is just as high as that of white sugar, and uncontrolled consumption of “natural” sugar does not at all protect against cravings for sweets or its sad consequences.

Sugar, are you the cutest in the world?

Sucrose is a disaccharide, a simple carbohydrate. The body expertly breaks down sucrose into glucose and fructose in just a few minutes, which enter the bloodstream. Perhaps everyone knows this effect - it’s enough to eat a small piece of candy to cheer up and “restart your brain.” Our body runs on glucose; it is a reliable and generally irreplaceable source of energy. The body ultimately obtains glucose from any carbohydrates (carbs), including slowly processed ones, but simple carbs are called fast precisely because they cause an immediate increase in blood sugar levels and a powerful release of insulin.

The first recipient of glucose is the brain. Then it “reaches” the muscles, kidneys, and other organs. Insulin helps glucose “flow” into the cells, while the brain cells “burn” it immediately, receiving the necessary energy, and the cells of other internal organs act in one of the following ways: either convert incoming glucose into glycogen (short-term reserves, which, if necessary, are consumed first when there is a shortage of energy from outside), or break it down, spending it on processes relevant to the cell. If there is too much glucose, the cell does not face any tasks of growth, repair and transformation, and the glycogen depots are clogged, glucose is transformed into fat.

Unstoppable cravings for sweets arise, among other things, due to the rapid absorption of sucrose. Sharp increase blood sugar concentrations and the release of insulin, which evacuates sugar from the bloodstream, cause the effect of “carbohydrate starvation”: everything has been absorbed too quickly, you need more! At the same time, unfortunately, human body evolutionarily not adapted to large doses of simple carbohydrates and is not able to independently understand that new energy is not really required. New “bright flashes” of blood sugar lead to new attacks of “sugar hunger”, and a vicious circle is formed. The first step to sweet addiction made...

At the end of 2013, the health department of Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, came up with a surprising initiative to place stickers on products containing sugar, similar to the ones smokers see on cigarette packs today.

According to Dutch officials, sugar is the most dangerous substance on the planet, and it is up to states to help their citizens come to their senses and think about the dangers to their health. Amsterdam innovators also plan to introduce a state excise tax on sugar in food industrial production. They are confident that such a measure is economically justified, because food manufacturers know that consuming sugar whets the appetite and are adding more and more sucrose to their products so that people eat more!

Sugar cravings for people with sugar sensitivity turn into... real danger: their self-esteem, performance and mood begin to directly depend on a timely chewed chocolate bar, which serves as a bridge of short pleasure between two abysses of despair. However, just large quantity sugar for sugar sensitivity should be avoided, choosing slow-digesting sugar that can equalize blood glucose levels and maintain it in a stable state throughout the day. A “dose” of endorphins and serotonin will help support physical activity. You should take action to correct the situation at the first suspicion. Otherwise, a person with heightened sensitivity to blood sugar levels will sit firmly on the “candy needle” and demonstrate all the signs of psychological and physical dependence on sweets.

Sweet cravings go on the hunt at night

The author of the famous diet, writes about the insidious mechanism by which the craving for sweets subjugates not only our secret dreams, but also our metabolism. In his opinion, the paradox is precisely that we are well aware of the harm of sweets, and this is also why we overestimate the joy of meeting them, expecting an imaginary psychological relaxation that awaits after being “loaded” with candy or cake. This attitude is painfully familiar to those who are in a constant struggle with excess weight and are trying to strictly limit the composition of their diet or its calorie content. “Now I’ll eat something tasty, and then I’ll sit on rice and water for two weeks,” unfortunately, this way of thinking often becomes a standard trap, because the “last times” follow one after another.

Alexey Kovalkov draws attention: “sweet binges” are becoming not only serious psychological trauma(self-confidence and self-confidence collapses), but also disrupts the functioning of the pancreas, stomach, and liver. Alternating between “pumping up on sweets” and fasting leads to metabolic disorders and, ultimately, weight gain, despite a formally meager diet.

What to do? There is only one answer: work on yourself and look at the problem soberly as soon as the sugar fog clears. Dr. Kovalkov is confident that everyone can identify the main causes of breakdowns, their trigger mechanism, and learn to separate physiological hunger from emotional hunger.

Varied emotional life, not limited to the evening mental “chewing” of work stress and family grievances, magically curbs the need for cookies with frosting. And even better, a simple and favorite medicine copes with this - sleep!

Lack of sleep is a direct path to excess weight. This was reliably found out by the Canadian scientist Mir Kriger. The conclusion of his study, which covered 40 thousand people of different sexes aged from 32 to 49 years, is clear - you should sleep at least 7, or even 9 hours a day. A systematic “lack of” sleep causes hormonal imbalances that cannot be overcome with dietary measures alone. The traditional evening indulgence in sweets at the end of the working day plays an important role here: sugar activates the brain and physical processes, which turns out to be very inappropriate when a healthy schedule calls you to bed.

If you rarely go to bed before midnight, this means that when you are awake, you find a period of production of the hormone ghrelin, coinciding with a decrease in the production of the hormone leptin. These processes themselves are physiological, however, it is assumed that they occur while the “owner” of the body is sleeping.

Ghrelin increases appetite, leptin decreases it. If the sleep is complete, within 8-9 hours hormonal processes go through the stages of natural regulation and in the morning a person is already able to have breakfast quite consciously and plan his day accordingly. However, if the level of ghrelin begins to rise, and you are still at the computer or in front of the TV, it’s time to expect trouble - that is, a fierce desire to attack the kitchen cabinets and chew something delicious. This explains the special craving for sweets at night.

The second peak of an attack of sweet addiction among “night dwellers” is recorded around 3-4 am: the time has come for an increase in insulin levels, which entails, accordingly, a drop in blood sugar levels and a new attack of irresistible cravings for sweets. It is indeed extremely difficult to fight the “eternal hormonal call” in the night.

Therefore, the advice is simple: if you want to get rid of your craving for sweets, sleep it off!

7 steps to get rid of sugar addiction

Besides psychological work Over yourself and stress control and relaxation, the following tricks will help you successfully fight sugar cravings.

1 Add more sources of protein to your diet - its satiating ability and slow absorption help cope with attacks of hunger and the desire to grab something sweet. Of particular benefit will be farmed meat and poultry (raw materials grown in a free environment and not filled with hormones) and fish caught in natural, environmentally friendly reservoirs. Don't forget about vegetable proteins- legumes and nuts remain their non-toxic, easily digestible resource.
2 Visit an endocrinologist and gynecologist - obsessive cravings for sweets may be one of the symptoms of dysfunction thyroid gland or infection with candidiasis.
3 Get your doctor’s consent to take B vitamins - they are the ones that help nervous system to effectively withstand the daily stress of city life. Namely, stress often provokes cravings for sweets, including because it encourages inadequate production of the hormone cortisol, which is responsible for fat reserves and cravings. junk food.
4 Sugar substitutes will not help with sweet addiction - studies have shown that, on the contrary, they increase the desire to reach for a tasty morsel.
5 In order not to fall into frustration caused by giving up your favorite treats, treat yourself to dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa). The benefits of this delicacy are recognized by many nutritionists - the rich taste allows you to enjoy, the cocoa protein makes you feel full even in a small amount, and the antioxidant properties bring health benefits. The natural sweetness of carob is also a healthy alternative unhealthy sweets and does not contain substances that contribute to addiction.
6 To get rid of your addiction to sweets, don’t buy sweets!
7 Avoid low-fat products - most often, banal sugar is added to them to improve the taste, and this, as we already know, is a vicious circle - sugar leads to even more sugar.

Give me a pill for sweet cravings, and something sweeter!

Definitely welcome medical supplies, including dietary supplements - a measure to overcome cravings for sweets, which should be approached with extreme caution. However, firstly, there are cases when drug therapy becomes last hope, and secondly, information is never superfluous. Most importantly, do not take any medications or supplements without your doctor's knowledge! During your in-person visit, be sure to agree on the possibility of prescribing, dosage and make sure there is no side effects and individual intolerance.

Chromium-based drugs have been used for a long time in the “treatment” of cravings for sweets. Chromium is a biogenic substance, that is, it is part of the tissues of various representatives of the living world. IN pure form chromium is toxic, and hexavalent compounds are also carcinogenic, but the human body constantly needs microscopic supplies of the mineral: it is important for hematopoiesis, fat-carbohydrate metabolism and protein absorption.

Chromium and sugar are related in the human body inverse relationship: eating sweets “washes out” chromium, which, in turn, suppresses cravings for sweets.

Chromium picolinate has a bright scarlet color due to the fact that the metal in its composition is oxidized with picolinic acid, which, according to biochemists, simplifies the process of absorption of chromium by the human body. It is this substance that is often prescribed to reduce cravings for sweets.

Another drug used as a medical “crutch” for sugar addiction is especially well known to athletes and those who, unfortunately, are forced to observe special diet with gastritis. L-glutamine (glutamine) is a multifunctional amino acid found naturally in animals and vegetable proteins. Therapeutic effect glutamine was recognized about 40 years ago, and all this time the drug has been successfully used as aid in the treatment of diseases gastrointestinal tract thanks to its talent to reduce inflammation and speed up the healing of a wide variety of injuries.

However, gradually during clinical practice others were also found out beneficial features amino acids, including unexpected ones. Glutamine has been successfully tested and began to be used for treatment alcohol addiction. This effect inspired doctors to try glutamine in the “sweet business”, and the result was not long in coming: the amino acid also had a calming effect on cells craving sweets.

Products containing glutamine: beef, lamb, chicken and goose meat, hard cheese, cottage cheese, soy, chicken eggs, sea bass, peas.

The benefits of glutamine in eliminating sugar cravings are also enhanced by its ability to stabilize muscle tissue and cleanse the excretory organs of fat processing products. In addition, glutamine taken in its pure form is a potent source of available energy obtained from a non-carbohydrate source. This amino acid is involved in the formation of key neurotransmitters, helping the brain and nervous system to be fixed in a harmonious position regarding excitation and rest. We can say that glutamine re-teaches the body, exhausted and weakened by stress and addictions, to function as it should, biochemically helping to accept useful and correct solution about getting rid of addiction.

They helped us:

Evgeny Arzamastsev
Nutritionist at the Margarita Koroleva Center for Aesthetic Medicine

The World Health Organization estimates that a typical Russian eats about 100 grams of sugar per day. Despite the fact that the human body can process no more than 50 g of sweet additive more or less painlessly. And modern Scientific research Excess sugar in the menu is persistently associated with such serious diseases as diabetes, hypertension, strokes and heart attacks, and colon cancer. This list alone is enough to make you forget about soda and buns forever. But there is a nuance.

Stories about the dangers of sugar, alas, cannot force those with a sweet tooth to give up candy. American biologists have long proposed equating sweet poison to alcohol and tobacco and start honestly calling it a drug. Not for the sake of shocking: the mechanism of our brain’s reaction to sugar is not much different from the addictions that develop, say, with each new glass of champagne.

One of many experiments on this topic is indicative. Scientists from Princeton University fed experimental rats sugar daily, gradually increasing the dose. Everyone was happy. But one day, terrible for rodents, people completely excluded sweets from the menu. What do you think? The animals became restless, irritable and aggressive and, if they could, would probably complain about headache and the desire to bite. In general, the poor rats experienced a typical withdrawal in the absence of the coveted dose.

But let's get back to the people. Most of us swallowed our first dose of the sweet drug before we could speak clearly, and for decades maintained the bad attachment by buying “something for tea.” We can't just stop eating sugar, no matter how strong-willed people we are., ask any narcologist. But we can gradually (this is a key condition for success) reduce the amount of sweets in our diet to a minimum or even to zero.

WH experts have formulated several rules for those who intend to one day give up desserts. Get a plan of action.

Get enough sleep. Yes, it's that simple. The human body interprets lack of sleep as stressful situation– and sends out hormones that regulate appetite. One sleepless night is enough for you to eat more than 200 extra kilocalories the next day, with priority given to fast carbohydrates, that is, sugar. A well-rested person is less drawn to cakes - proven at Harvard.
Analyze your diet. An irresistible craving for sweets often manifests itself as a symptom of a lack of chromium, zinc or magnesium (or maybe all at once). Only a blood test can definitely determine this, but just in case, check how regularly the products from the list at the end of the article appear on your plate.
Eat protein. This is a way to maintain stable levels of glucose and insulin in the blood and, as a result, crave sweets less. Ideally, protein should be ingested at every meal, but definitely at breakfast. By proteins we mean not only meat and fish, but also nuts, seeds, eggs, and legumes.
Eat small and frequent meals. The thought of snacking on cookies doesn’t even occur to people whose sugar levels don’t jump sharply throughout the day. Try to eat food every 2–2.5 hours (of course, distributing its volume so that by the end of the month it does not resemble a ball) – and you will notice that when you don’t have to worry acute attacks hunger, it is easier to pass past the pastry shops.
Don't keep sweets in sight. If there is a piece of cake waiting in the refrigerator, and gingerbread cookies in the table drawer, the temptation to eat them will defeat any vows. So it's simple: don't buy anything that isn't good for you. And for occasions when you are accustomed to eating sweets (coffee breaks with colleagues, meetings with girlfriends, morning tea), keep healthier alternatives to chocolate and croissants on hand. These can be seasonal fruits and berries, honey, dried fruits.
Move. Regular physical exercise – good way cope with daily stress, which is often to blame for our emotional attachment for chocolate and jam.
Add healthy fats. They are extremely important for the body's hormonal stability and help you feel full longer. Healthy unsaturated fats are found in avocados, nuts and seeds, and olive oil.
Cook at home. To reduce the amount of sugar entering the body, you will have to limit industrially processed foods as much as possible. Sweeteners are now even added to dumplings and pickles, and the only way Avoid excess – personally regulate the amount of sugar in your food. Here's a simple example: cutlets bought at the grocery store will almost certainly contain syrup or something like that; in a piece of meat that you personally turn into cutlets at home - no.
Stop drinking calories. Any form of liquid sugar is worse than solid food with him. Sugary drinks deliver the drug straight to your liver without even trying to create the illusion of satiety. Therefore, by drinking lemonade in between, you provoke yourself to eat more and more fast carbohydrates.
Add spices Cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom naturally sweeten foods, help regulate blood sugar and control your addiction.