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Problems With Craving Sweets

Sep 7, 2011 | By Monica Crowe
Problems With Craving Sweets
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Americans get a heaping portion of sweets every day, and it adds up to a pile of health problems. According to MayoClinic.com, Americans get more than 22 tsp. of sugar per day, which adds up to 84 lbs. per year — close to half of an adult's body weight. The American Heart Association recommends that people cut their daily sweets intake by half. The organization's guidelines urge women to limit themselves to 100 calories of sugar per day, while men should get only 150 daily calories from sweets.

Sugar Side Effects

About 35 percent of the calories in a typical American's diets consist of sugars and solid fats, MayoClinic.com reports, indicating they aren't getting enough dietary fiber, essential vitamins and minerals. Sugar contributes to both cosmetic and serious health problems. For example, all forms of sugar promote tooth decay by allowing bacteria to grow in the mouth. Sugar also adds extra calories to food and beverages, contributing to weight gain. Furthermore, MayoClinic.com warns, sugar might elevate triglycerides, which are a risk factor for heart disease. Drs. Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen add that sugar also contributes to wrinkles, impotence and aging inside and out.

Sugar Cravings

If you crave sugar, there could be an emotional component at play. Emotional eating, done consciously or not, leads to eating too much high-calorie sweet and fatty food, which in turn causes weight gain. People consume sweets as a way to ease stress, anger, fear, boredom, sadness and loneliness. Triggers might include unemployment, health problems, relationship conflicts, work stress and fatigue, among others. The Women to Women website notes that low serotonin and/or low blood sugar levels can also cause sugar cravings. When depleted, these signal the brain that we need a boost, which prompts cravings. Sugars and simple carbohydrates provide a quick shot of serotonin, but when the good feeling subsides, the body craves more.

Suppressing Cravings

Oz and Roizen recommend chewing sugar-free gum as a way to blunt a sugar craving. Eating stimulates your taste buds only for a while, they explain, and ventually you notice the taste of your food less, signaling your brain that you are full. Chewing gum might have the same effect. The doctors also recommend thinking of how much food you've eaten during the day while you chew the gum. If you are still craving sweets, drink a glass of water. Women to Women adds that eating healthy foods, taking pharmaceutical-grade nutritional supplements and getting moderate exercise can also cure cravings — though you should check with your doctor before taking supplements of any kind, and before making any drastic changes to your diet and exercise regimen.

Limiting Sugar Intake

MayoClinic.com offers the following tips to moderate your daily sugar intake: Avoid sugary sodas and instead drink water; eat breakfast cereals with more nutrients than sugar; eat fewer processed and packaged foods; and snack on vegetables, fruit, low-fat cheese, low-fat yogurt and whole-grain crackers instead of sugary treats. Oz and Roizen suggest mixing your own soft drinks by blending seltzer with a jigger of fruit juice. Read food labels, too, as sugar can sometimes lurks in food products under names like dextrose, high-fructose corn syrup and corn, rice, malt and maple syrups. Indeed, Oz and Roizen caution, any ingredient that ends in -ose is another name for sugar.

References

Article reviewed by Will McCahill Last updated on: Sep 7, 2011

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