Sometimes, you feel like an invisible force is pulling you towards the fridge or snack cupboard. You know that you could easily stick to your diet if it weren’t for those overpowering cravings for something sweet or indulgent. If you struggle to get through the day without coffee, sugar, chocolate, or processed treats, it can feel like you’re stuck on a never-ending hamster wheel.
To finally end those cravings, it’s essential to understand and address the physical, emotional, habitual, and psychological triggers behind them. While this might sound daunting, it’s easier than you think. Once you understand how food interacts with your body, you can break the physical need for constant snacking and start forming healthier habits around your relationship with food.
Are Cravings Running Your Life?
Your body needs a steady supply of energy throughout the day. Your blood sugar spikes when you consume too many foods that quickly convert to sugar, like starchy carbs or sugary snacks. In response, your body releases insulin to manage this excess sugar, storing it as fat. However, the body sometimes overcompensates, causing your blood sugar to plummet too quickly, which leaves you feeling tired, unfocused, irritable, and craving more sugar.
These cravings are often for sugary foods or starchy carbs—anything your body can quickly turn into sugar to restore balance. But eating this way creates a “blood sugar rollercoaster,” where your energy levels spike and crash, leaving you fatigued, moody, and struggling to concentrate.
Why Do I Keep Craving Food?
Balancing your blood sugar levels is the key to curbing cravings. By making a few adjustments to your diet, you can regain control.
Where to Begin?
Switching to a low-glycemic load (low-GL) diet is one of the most effective ways to stabilize blood sugar. Focus on whole foods like vegetables, fruit, lean meats, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts, seeds, beans, and pulses. Include smaller amounts of wholegrain carbohydrates like brown rice, wholemeal bread, and quinoa. These foods give your body a steady, slow release of glucose, preventing those energy spikes and crashes.
To support your transition to this way of eating, here are a few simple tips:
- Eat Three Meals a Day—Avoid snacking between meals and allow at least 12 hours between dinner and breakfast to give your body a chance to rest and process what you’ve eaten.
- Include Protein in Every Meal – Protein helps slow the breakdown of sugars in your body, preventing blood sugar spikes. Aim to have sources like meat, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts, or pulses with each meal.
- Focus on Non-Starchy Vegetables – Fill your plate with vegetables that grow above ground, such as leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, and peppers. These provide essential nutrients without spiking your blood sugar.
- Reduce Starchy Carbohydrates—When you do eat carbohydrates, opt for wholemeal varieties like brown rice and wholemeal bread. You can also try alternatives like quinoa.
While you might be far from this ideal, working on your overall diet will help align your energy levels and reduce cravings. As you focus on eating natural, wholesome foods, your cravings for sugary or processed snacks will diminish.
Snacking vs. Craving
Understanding the difference between snacking and giving in to cravings is essential. Healthy snacks, especially in the early days of changing your diet, can help stabilize your blood sugar. For example, a small snack like an oatcake with hummus or yoghurt with berries can help keep your hunger at bay.
Cravings, on the other hand, tend to be specific and intense. You feel an almost uncontrollable urge to eat a particular food, usually something high in sugar or carbs. These cravings often occur when blood sugar levels are out of balance or when there’s an emotional attachment to certain foods.
Breaking Habitual Eating Patterns
Cravings often follow a pattern: a trigger (like the 3 PM energy slump), followed by an action (grabbing a sugary snack), and ending with a reward (an energy boost). Breaking this cycle involves recognizing your triggers and finding healthier alternatives.
Ask yourself:
- What are my triggers? Are they emotional? Situational? Linked to specific foods?
- What can I do differently when a craving strikes? Could a walk, a short break, or some relaxation help instead?
Once you’ve identified your triggers, make a plan:
- Get Rid of Trigger Foods – If you can’t resist certain foods, don’t keep them in your house.
- Plan Ahead – Until your new habits are solid, plan your meals and snacks to avoid last-minute cravings.
- Use Distraction Techniques – When a craving strikes, do something else. Whether going for a walk, painting your nails, or cleaning, finding a distraction can help you break the cycle.
Curbing Emotional Eating
Emotional eating happens when you use food to cope with your feelings instead of addressing the underlying emotion. If stress, boredom, or loneliness drives your cravings, find healthier outlets, such as physical activity, meditation, or talking to a friend.
Remember that YOU are in control of your health. When cravings arise, practice responding with positive alternatives like “I could eat it, but I choose not to” or “I’m not hungry, so I’ll wait.”
Practice Makes Perfect
Changing habits takes time and effort. It takes about 3 weeks to break a habit, 6 weeks to create a new one, and 36 weeks for that habit to become second nature. Be patient and kind to yourself along the way.
While occasional indulgences won’t derail your progress, regular binges will. If you slip up, don’t dwell on it. Acknowledge it, move on, and reaffirm your commitment to healthier choices.
As part of our commitment to holistic health, Total Health Now Clinic offers free 30-minute consultations to explore how these natural remedies can support your well-being. We also offer 14 to 28-day RejuvaDetox programs and Gut Reset plans designed to help tackle your cravings and improve overall health.
