Does this sound familiar? It is afternoon and like clockwork, your sugar craving hits. You know you shouldn\’t give in to your craving but the intensity of the craving is so extreme you just don\’t have enough willpower to prevent yourself from satisfying it. You grab whatever is near, i.e. cookies from the vending machine, chocolates on your assistant\’s desk, or the leftover ice cream in the freezer from the night before. If there is nothing around and easy to grab, you make a special trip to the food store to buy a sweet, tasty treat.

You take your first bite, and it tastes so good. You feel relief. Your energy levels immediately rise. You feel happier. This feel good feeling doesn\’t last long, however. Soon after your energy levels plummet, your mood becomes irritable, and you have trouble focusing on the tasks at hand. So what happens? Your body starts to crave more sugar to make yourself feel better again. You become frustrated with yourself because you have no willpower. What\’s wrong with you?

There is nothing wrong with you. Cravings are your body\’s way of telling you that something is amiss. You just need to understand what is at the root cause of your craving. In working with clients, I have identified the following 3 main causes of sugar cravings.

Low Energy: If you are tired your body will naturally crave sweets to quickly bring your energy levels back up. As long as your energy issues aren\’t due to some deeper, medical condition, you should be able to turn your energy levels around by identifying the cause of your low energy. There are a number of possible causes of low energy one of which is skipping breakfast (or eating a poor quality breakfast).

Don\’t skip breakfast if you want to have high energy levels throughout the day so that you can prevent your body from craving sugar. After literally fasting all night long, your body needs healthy food come morning. If you don\’t give your body the fuel it needs, it will send out craving signals for a quick energy source like sugar that will be hard to ignore. Keep in mind a good breakfast is not cold cereal, orange juice, coffee, instant oatmeal or a bagel. All these foods will spike your blood sugar levels just like table sugar only to leave you lacking in energy soon after. Try instead to eat healthy foods for breakfast that don\’t raise blood sugar levels so quickly and high like whole temperate fruits (not tropical); protein like fish, nuts, seeds, legumes, eggs; vegetables (excluding white potatoes); and cooked whole grains (not instant or the whole grains found in cold cereal).

Nutritional Imbalance: Sometimes a sugar craving is caused by a nutritional imbalance. For instance, if you are eating too much salt, you are likely to crave sugar later. Human beings love the taste of sweet and salty combined. Some examples of this taste combination are chocolate covered pretzels, peanut butter cups, and eating an orange after a salty Chinese meal. Pay attention to when you have your sugar cravings to see if you ate something salty prior that may have triggered your craving.

Other possible nutritional imbalances that may trigger a sugar craving include: eating too little fat, overloading on protein, drinking too little water, enjoying too much spicy food, eating foods low in nutritional value.

Primary Food Issue: What is primary food? Primary food is food that doesn\’t come on a plate, and you don\’t put it into your mouth. What kind of food could primary food be? I sometimes call it life food or soul food. To be healthy and to get sugar cravings under control, you need to love your life. Think about it. When you are stressed you are much more likely to eat sweets than when you are having fun and completely immersed in your life and work.

We often associate sweet foods with comfort, happiness, and joy so if our lives are lacking in these things, sweet treats become the fix. Interestingly, we are now finding that even on a physiological level our body produces feel good hormones when we eat sugar. No wonder sweets can be so addictive! Still, if we can take a moment to identify what can be improved in our lives, and we start working towards fixing what needs to be fixed, our sugar cravings often diminish because we are getting sweetness from life instead of food.

Why is it important to end your sugar cravings? Sugar wreaks havoc on your heart health. It raises triglycerides, puts your body into fat storage mode, and can wear out your cells\’ ability to receive insulin which can lead to diabetes a key risk factor for heart disease.

So don\’t think that you can simply ignore getting your sugar cravings under control. From now until the end of the day tomorrow, be very aware of them. See if any of the causes just mentioned are ones that you think are linked to your sugar cravings. If yes, take a moment to consider what actions you can take to get your sugar craving back in control. With a little attention and experimentation, you should be able to kick the sugar habit for good.

Author Bio: Want sure-fire, easy ways to lower your LDL cholesterol and triglycerides by 30% and 20%, respectively, while learning how to get your sugar cravings under control? Visit www.cutcholesterolnow.com for your FREE audio \”Top 3 Secrets to Lower Your Cholesterol Fast without Drugs or Drastic Dieting\”. Sandra is a Heart-Healthy Food Coach. She received her nutrition and coaching training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in NYC

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: sugar,sugar cravings,sugar craving causes,control sugar cravings,diabetes,triglycerides,cholesterol