Why Do We Crave Sugar?

Hyper-palatability
Food manufacturers employ food scientists to perfect their recipes and to develop the yummiest of yum foods for us. These foods are called ‘hyper-palatable’ foods due to their apparent addictiveness to the average palate. No mere mortal can stop after they have indeed popped re. Pringles. Research has found that foods equal in kcal amounts for sugar and fats tend to be ‘hyperpalatable’ and therefore irresistible to humans e.g. brownies, ice-cream, cake etc. If you crave these foods don’t worry it’s simply your brain purposely being manipulated by sneaky food manufacturers. Still, so good though!

Restricting
Chronically undereating, being hungry or depleted carbohydrate stores may increase cravings for sugar as it is our source of quick release energy. Your brain is super helpful to human survival and will help you in times of famine and starvation to seek out the most energy dense foods. The helpful brain increases dopamine when you carry out behaviours conducive with staying alive and procreating (1). For that reason when you get a big hit of Calories, sugar and fat together in large quantities we get a big cranial, hell yes! Your brain carefully logs the smell, taste, and look of this euphoric food and increases your drive for more when it feels you're being a wee bit neglectful of your survival. That’s why dieting, cutting carbs and being hungry increases sugar cravings. It’s like a cat bringing you a present of a dead mouse (nobody had to die, Tinkerbell!), you can’t blame them, they’re just running on instinct, they just THINK they’re being super helpful.

Habit Formation
The dopamine hit we get from high energy, sugary and fatty foods can also be helpfully associated with our environment and emotions. Again, nice one brain! Maybe you were given a lolly when you were upset as a child or movie night just wouldn’t be the same without passing around the maltesers? You can be in the habit of using sugar to pacify you when you’re sad, heighten the experience when you’re happy or just be there for you like an old friend coming to hangout when you're bored. As Mick Jagger said ‘old habits die hard’.

Bad Nights Sleep
Lack of sleep creates shifts in hormones that can increase appetite. Especially appetite for carbohydrate based foods, with a preference for high Calorie, high sugar and high fat foods that taste sweet (2). Again the foods that fit this profile are biscuits, chocolate, ice-cream, cake etc. all the yumminess that you might call comfort food when you're feeling pretty tired.

Basically
We crave sugar because it tastes so good right? But why does it taste so good? It’s all driven biologically. We crave sugar in times of food restriction as our brain tries to keep us well fueled. This biological system can be hijacked by yummy processed food manufactured to be hyper-palatable. We can formulate bad habits around our environment and emotions with these hyper-palatable foods. We also reach for these comforting carbs when we are tired.

Psychological Habit Change

Meditation
If you have an emotional link to sugar consumption, reducing the impact that that emotion has on your life is likely to help with the cravings. Meditation is a healthier alternative to deal with your emotions of stress, anxiety or sadness etc.

Mindful Eating
Mindful eating promotes increased focus on your food and therefore the delight it brings you. If you struggle with sugar cravings, mindful eating could help you to appreciate the reward you get from eating all food, especially healthy foods, to somewhat lessen the perceived reward of sugar. Eat your food with intent. How does it smell? How does it taste? How is this nourishing your body?

Be Rational
If you’re craving sugar try not to go straight to a negative mind set. Be rational. It’s totally normal to crave sugar. Now why is it happening this time for you. Are you dieting? Are you feeling stressed? Are you in a situation that you normally associate with sugar? Have you just seen one of those alluring hyper-palatable foods? Whatever it is that may have triggered the craving, be rational about what it was and work on THAT going forward. Most of the time the craving was a perfectly normal response. And sometimes we just felt like it. Own it!

Most and Sometimes Mentality
You need to drop the all or nothing mentality. Instead aim for a ‘most and sometimes’ mentality. Mostly healthy, sometimes sugary. Sugar cravings can be born from restriction and never quite satisfying a craving that is perfectly natural. If you struggle with an all or nothing mentality I would work on satisfying those sugar cravings with small sweet portions when they turn up instead of letting them build up until you find yourself in the ‘nothing’ phase.

Set Achievable Goals
Set achievable nutrition goals that aren’t psychologically damaging. It’s quite sadistic to berate yourself for not achieving unattainable goals. I would definitely put eating absolutely no sugar into the unattainable goals list. At least for me! And as we discussed, restriction can create cravings. So work within your means. A better goal might be that sugary treats are a social affair instead of an every night watching T.V thing.

Physical Habit Change

Eat Enough Food
If you chronically under eat you will crave food or even if you just let yourself get hungry one time you will notice, you are craving food. Often this food is tasty and high in quick sugary energy. A good way to tell if you don’t eat enough in your regular diet is to consider if your body has been getting bigger over the past few weeks. If you have stayed around the same size but you also manage to get quite a lot of junk and sugary foods into your diet, you are not eating enough. Your cravings for junk are simply making up the difference. Put in more of the nourishing foods and your junk intake will come down accordingly.

Habit Swap
Swap one habit for another. You are less likely to succeed if you try to go cold turkey. The sugary food must be giving you some sort of warm fuzzy feeling because otherwise you wouldn’t be craving it so make sure to replace it with something that seems worth it for you. For example, don’t decide you'll forgo dessert and run 5km every night if you hate running. It’s not going to work! But maybe swapping dessert for family craft time, bubble bath bliss time or meditation time hits the right spot?

Increase Carbohydrate
If you are cutting carbohydrates you may experience sugar cravings. Increase complex carbohydrate containing foods such as kumara, potato, pumpkin, whole grain breads, pasta, rice and beans. You may just be chronically low in carbohydrate, especially if you restrict carbohydrates or exercise a lot or with high intensity.

Just Eat the Treat
It’s not healthy to demonise a food. It’s just a food and we’re just hardwired to eat it so now and again give yourself permission to just eat the treat. It won’t have an impact on your health providing you also consistently take care of your nutrient needs. And, most of the ‘battle’ we have with sugar is us saying no and creating a cycle of wanting it more.