How to overcome sugar cravings

[innerspace_cadet]

I try to eat right and exercise on a regular basis, but I still get sugar cravings every day. I was wondering what to do about this. I tried going by the program in "Eat to Live" but I don't like to cook and found it very restrictive and couldn't stick with it. Recently, I bought a copy of "The Primal Blueprint" and have been following it as much as possible, but it is too soon to tell if it will help.

 

Does anyone have any dietary or exercise recommendations to give that will help? I already run and practice Tai Chi, but wonder if I should increase the amount of time I do them. Would going on a fast help?

[lydian]

I don't know the programms you mention but I have a fairly simple suggestion in addition to some quality aerobic exercise:

Try to restrict your intake of carbohydrates.

Don't eat any sugars and refined carbs (white flour) at all.

Only eat some, say 150 grams of complex carbs (whole grain breads). These will not raise your glucose levels as fast and in turn insulin release will be slower. Complex carbs will keep you satiated for longer. In addition, always combine the complex carbs with some high quality fat to make them last longer.

 

This entails also watching where the sugars and simple starches sneak in in processed foods.

You could also drink some licorice tea. But don't consume too much licorice, in large doses (via supplements) it may raise your blood pressure.

 

It will be hard in the beginning, but give it some time, it will relieve insulin resistance. Sugar cravings will disappear.

Good luck!

lydian

[Ramon25]

I try to eat right and exercise on a regular basis, but I still get sugar cravings every day. I was wondering what to do about this. I tried going by the program in "Eat to Live" but I don't like to cook and found it very restrictive and couldn't stick with it. Recently, I bought a copy of "The Primal Blueprint" and have been following it as much as possible, but it is too soon to tell if it will help.

 

Does anyone have any dietary or exercise recommendations to give that will help? I already run and practice Tai Chi, but wonder if I should increase the amount of time I do them. Would going on a fast help?

 

The primal blueprint is AWESOME! I have been following it for years now and it will def help with suagr cravings. I also advise magnesium glycinate and chromnium chelated to vitamin b3.... Will work wonders

[Ramon25]

I don't know the programms you mention but I have a fairly simple suggestion in addition to some quality aerobic exercise:

Try to restrict your intake of carbohydrates.

Don't eat any sugars and refined carbs (white flour) at all.

Only eat some, say 150 grams of complex carbs (whole grain breads). These will not raise your glucose levels as fast and in turn insulin release will be slower. Complex carbs will keep you satiated for longer. In addition, always combine the complex carbs with some high quality fat to make them last longer.

 

This entails also watching where the sugars and simple starches sneak in in processed foods.

You could also drink some licorice tea. But don't consume too much licorice, in large doses (via supplements) it may raise your blood pressure.

 

It will be hard in the beginning, but give it some time, it will relieve insulin resistance. Sugar cravings will disappear.

Good luck!

lydian

 

There is no such thing as "complex carbs" and the effect of "whole grains on blood sugar is usually the same as it refined counterpart except in some select cases. overall avoid grains just eat fruits and veggies for carbs, more fiber which slows the release of glucose into the blood stream and there is just more bulk to eat with less carbs in general. Avoid very sugary fruits.

[NeiChuan]

Well a normal amount of sugar a person supposedly should be having is 30 grams a day.. Just drink water, eat plenty of vegetables, and limit number of fruits.

 

Honestly I still have a cup of blue berries every morning or so.. But thats about all the sugar through out the day, just me.

 

Good Luck

[fizix]

Sugar is a drug, it is hard to cold-turkey quit drugs; even this such drug of nature. I'd recommend slowly reducing your amount of sugar intake, rather than completely eliminating all sugar from the go.

[voidisyinyang]

Vinegar is a great way to reduce your glycemic index level....

[NeiChuan]

Sugar is a drug, it is hard to cold-turkey quit drugs; even this such drug of nature. I'd recommend slowly reducing your amount of sugar intake, rather than completely eliminating all sugar from the go.

 

Going cold turkey can be a bit harsh aswell. The headaches I mean ect.

[Gerard]

This book contains good info:

 

Helping Ourselves: Guide to Traditional Chinese Food Energetics, Daverick Leggett

 

And a good cooking guide by same author:

 

Recipes for Self Healing, Daverick Leggett

 

http://www.amazon.com/Helping-Ourselves-Traditional-Chinese-Energetics/dp/0952464004/ref=pd_sim_b_1

 

Some good info in here:

 

http://www.meridianpress.net/articles.html

 

 

About your health condition,

 

Take a look at this article:

 

http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=28075

 

 

All the best.

 

 

Vinegar is a great way to reduce your glycemic index level....

 

My advice is no; bad stuff as it promotes dampness. Very bad. Better drink pu-erh tea daily to reduce glycemix index level and strengthen spleen.

Edited July 13, 2010 by durkhrod chogori

[voidisyinyang]

This book contains good info:

 

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=YD-H5tBVNbMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Paul+Pitchford+Healing+with+Whole+Foods.&source=bl&ots=lZu0ESUyp5&sig=J7F0tcG9rc4qOsA9ofZ4PegsWM0&hl=en&ei=0rk7TJXlJYqOkQWTq9CxAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Healing with Whole Foods - Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition by Paul Pritchard.

 

But info in here is better according to TCM philosophy:

 

Helping Ourselves: Guide to Traditional Chinese Food Energetics, Daverick Leggett

 

And a good cooking guide by same author:

 

Recipes for Self Healing, Daverick Leggett

 

http://www.amazon.com/Helping-Ourselves-Traditional-Chinese-Energetics/dp/0952464004/ref=pd_sim_b_1

 

Some good info in here:

 

http://www.meridianpress.net/articles.html

 

 

About your health condition,

 

Take a look at this article:

 

http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=28075

 

 

All the best.

 

 

 

 

My advice is no; bad stuff as it promotes dampness. Very bad. Better drink pu-erh tea daily to reduce glycemix index level and strengthen spleen.

 

I googled vinegar promotes dampness and I got this:

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=YD-H5tBVNbMC&pg=PA420&lpg=PA420&dq=vinegar+promotes+dampness&source=bl&ots=lZu0ETUsv6&sig=99ZsOo_50eUa8kiIK5SKUcUb4ho&hl=en&ei=x947TNGgBIW8lQe8_b38BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

The same book you recommend -- and it says on the same page that

 

CUCUMBERS promote dampness while

 

VINEGAR "quickly stimulates qi flow."

 

O.K. now I find in this book that a "contraindication" of stagnation in the center burner caused by dampness.

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=80CqL7u0KdIC&pg=PA128&lpg=PA128&dq=vinegar+promotes+dampness&source=bl&ots=dXj-HWr_Ge&sig=xc1Emp1V709WVoAvYRv-aY3rJ3o&hl=en&ei=8t87TN6GNMj_nQeGg7DJDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBYQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=vinegar%20promotes%20dampness&f=false

Edited July 13, 2010 by drewhempel

[Gerard]

Thanks for that. Edited my previous post. I checked other sources and that book contains several big TCM mistakes. Please disregard it.

 

Stay away from vinegar (as well as bread, cheese, mushrooms, soy sauce, barbecue sauce, black fungus, and other yeast-based foods such as crackers, pretzels, dry cereal, miso, tempeh, canned vegetables, pickled vegetables, beer, root beer and other fermented beverages) if you suffer from triple burner-related condition and a weakened spleen energy which is quite a common condition amongst modern humans due to the pathogenic influence of Western diet, which is absolutely horrendous.

[Astral_Anima]

Personally i'm a believer in Raw food diets as a GREAT healing method. You may want to try going on a fruit-based diet, supplimenting bad sugar for good sugar. Usually craving are the body's way of saying it needs something. Since sugar is ATP you could have adrenal burnout (actually caused by white sugar sumtimes), or whatever.

Fasting is a POWERFUL healing method and a great way to regain self control (i've used it mant times with great success). Although I wouldn't advise buying into the suger-phobia. Sugar is what our body uses breaks down into ATP, it's the most readily available source of energy. Fruits, raw milk and raw unheated honey are great sources of nutrition and goods (land of milk and honey didn't get it's positive connotation for nuthin ).

You may want to start with a high fruit diet to quench your sugar cravings, but slowly introduce some sprouts to get in chlorophyll(blood cleanser) and minerals. Thats MY advise, do what you will with it. (but i DO urge you to look into the raw food diet for yourself. If you'd like start here thegardendiet.com the father here is NUTS)

[Ramon25]

Personally i'm a believer in Raw food diets as a GREAT healing method. You may want to try going on a fruit-based diet, supplimenting bad sugar for good sugar. Usually craving are the body's way of saying it needs something. Since sugar is ATP you could have adrenal burnout (actually caused by white sugar sumtimes), or whatever.

Fasting is a POWERFUL healing method and a great way to regain self control (i've used it mant times with great success). Although I wouldn't advise buying into the suger-phobia. Sugar is what our body uses breaks down into ATP, it's the most readily available source of energy. Fruits, raw milk and raw unheated honey are great sources of nutrition and goods (land of milk and honey didn't get it's positive connotation for nuthin ).

You may want to start with a high fruit diet to quench your sugar cravings, but slowly introduce some sprouts to get in chlorophyll(blood cleanser) and minerals. Thats MY advise, do what you will with it. (but i DO urge you to look into the raw food diet for yourself. If you'd like start here thegardendiet.com the father here is NUTS)

 

 

With all due respect this is by far the worst advice possible for a person who wants to control there blood sugar. Just plain bad.... A fruit based diet will only promote more dependence on sugar and "good" "bad" sugar, CHEMICALLY sugar is sugar, fruit just has a little more fructose that more processed forms but the difference is not huge. Yes fruit is better in priciple becuase of many factors but 400 grams of carbs form fruit is 400 grams of carbs from any source the same and WILL cause problems in glucose control

[Gerard]

...fruit-based diet

 

Esiest way to ruin your stomach-spleen relationship without bearing in mind two major components:

 

1. Season and climate

2. Your individual make-up. Fire horse, water rat, wood tiger, and so forth.

 

Eating too many raw fruit and vegetables promotes spleen dampness. No good.

 

My advice is to eat a balanced diet that includes steamed leafy greens everyday. Look at the Chinese meals and YOU WILL UNDERSTAND WHY THEY HAVE DONE THIS FOR THE PAST 3,000 YEARS!

[lydian]

Esiest way to ruin your stomach-spleen relationship without bearing in mind two major components:

 

1. Season and climate

2. Your individual make-up. Fire horse, water rat, wood tiger, and so forth.

 

Eating too many raw fruit and vegetables promotes spleen dampness. No good.

 

My advice is to eat a balanced diet that includes steamed leafy greens everyday. Look at the Chinese meals and YOU WILL UNDERSTAND WHY THEY HAVE DONE THIS FOR THE PAST 3,000 YEARS!

 

I totally agree, be wary of raw foods depending on your constitution. Steamed veggies are great!

 

 

This supplement may also help:

Glycoscia

[Christoph]

give your metabolism a few weeks to shift from sugar/carb fuel to fat fuel on a moderate to lowish carb-high fat Paleo and you will do great. If you are not trying to lose weight then dont be afraid of starches like potatoes and make friends with coconut milk because it is awesome on a bowl of half frozen blueberries.

[NeiChuan]

Hm so a + for spleen is less work more nutrients?

 

Hence the steamed vegetables..

[Dr. Dcup]

I try to eat right and exercise on a regular basis, but I still get sugar cravings every day. I was wondering what to do about this. I tried going by the program in "Eat to Live" but I don't like to cook and found it very restrictive and couldn't stick with it. Recently, I bought a copy of "The Primal Blueprint" and have been following it as much as possible, but it is too soon to tell if it will help.

 

Does anyone have any dietary or exercise recommendations to give that will help? I already run and practice Tai Chi, but wonder if I should increase the amount of time I do them. Would going on a fast help?

 

 

Hi, you say you try to eat right but right to people is subjective. Craving means something is out of balance and you need something to balance it ie sugar. If it happens everyday then it is chronic. To fix something chronic, the solution also has to be chronic. Besides re-examining your diet you may want to re-examine your feelings/emotions to see if that is causing you to crave too.

 

I used to like to drink soda or sugary iced tea from a can. I stopped drinking those because I noticed I always felt thirsty and craved it. I also started drinking alkaline water and after a few days the craving went away. Someone else I know likes sweets when they get emotional or bored. They would have to re-examine their emotions to stop liking sweets. So it could be a physical or emotional cause. Hope this helps, regards.

[voidisyinyang]

[voidisyinyang]

 

Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin. Series: UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public [7/2009] [Health and Medicine] [show ID: 16717]

[gendao]

Try some EFT?

 

"Even though I want to eat sugar...I completely and deeply accept myself/I choose to relax now."

EFT gave 75% of people an improvement in their vision...

[三江源]

as Drew said, vinegar. And green powder daily, if you cant eat enough good greens. and chromium picolinate.

and Yacon syrup if you really need to taste something sweet that aint fruit, or sweeten coffee etc.

[Christoph]

eat fat

[Gerard]

Hi DC, just a gentle note. This is why seeing a professionally trained TCM doctor may be wise. So that diagnostic and prescription errors are minimized.

 

Thanks for your note about foods to avoid for spleen deficiency. This is what my acupuncturist is remedying for me.

 

Of course Rainbow, I always advice to see experienced TCM/energy-based practitioners FIRST and FOREMOST because the internal organs work together as a team following the 5 elements model.

 

And again, vinegar is a no-no thing if you suffer from dampness and wind-cold symptoms because you'll be worsening your condition. How many times do I need to repeat myself?!

 

 

Edited: typo.

Edited July 15, 2010 by durkhrod chogori

[Encephalon]

Wow. I know we all have our differences in here but dietary advice seems to have a contentious category all its own. I don't see any way around this conundrum; I honestly don't know who is a registered dietitian or nutritionist, but I do know that many of us have practical advice and personal experience that can be helpful. But on the scale of intellectual integrity, personal testimony doesn't rank very high. So I'll take a stab at your question about getting off sugar, knowing full well that much of it will be contested by my friends in here.

 

The single most important thing you can do is eat frequently to keep your blood sugar up. Protein sources and complex carbs are best. Hi protein grains such as quinoa and buckwheat are great, since they are complex carbs and digest slowly. (The idea that complex carbs cannot be separated from simple sugars sounds straight out of left field, in my opinion, but I could be wrong.) Some of your daily meals should also consist of low-carb fruits and vegetables and nuts too. The minute I allow myself to get too hungry I start dreaming of donuts.

 

I'm into sprouting in a big way these days. I make my own mix of fenugreek, wheat berries, lentil, and mung bean, and keep three sprouting jars going in rotation. I sprinkle the mix with gourmet vegetarian baco-bits and roasted sunflower seeds. The mix is extremely filling and chewy as hell, which is part of the effect.

 

In the afternoon, when I start to drag, I consume two tbs. of unsulphured blackstrap mollases in hot water, with 1 tbs of brewer's yeast. This will only give you 22gms of carbs, but the calcium, iron, potassium and B vitamin content is so high that it's worth every gram.

 

I would also invest in some stevia and experiment a little in the kitchen. And perform a pantry raid; throw the bad stuff out.

 

But... the bottom line is... reigning in sugar consumption is All about impulse control. It is nothing less than will training, zazen, or other means of character building/mind training. If you approach your dietary regimen with any less commitment, you're more likely to stumble. Bruce Lee was said to have only eaten food items that supported his martial artistry. I think this is probably the most important factor.

 

Hold on. I need to edit/add one other important fact; the role of vanity. The moment you get tired of seeing zits all over your chest and face, you'll automatically cut out your sugar!

Edited July 15, 2010 by Blasto