Millions of years of evolution have wired the brain to desire and consume sweet carbohydrates, like fruit and honey, because they are quick sources of energy, can be effectively stored as energy, and are high in nutrients.
When we eat sweet carbs the brain's reward system gets activated and releases dopamine which signals the brain that this was a positive experience, further encouraging this behavior.
High levels of stress and stress hormones further increase our desire for sweet carbs.
When our hunter gatherer ancestors lived in nature and food was scarce or we were in a highly stressful situation, like being hunted or escaping a predator, this innate desire was beneficial for health and survival.
It drove us to consume enough nutrient dense food, store enough energy to prevent starvation until the next meal, and have quick energy available for a high stress survival situation.
So desiring and enjoying sweet foods is a normal and beneficial part of our physiology but craving them is not. The difference is desire is a conscious intention that is under control, and craving is an intense, subconscious drive due to our physiological state that is difficult to control.
Now in modern times not only are natural, high nutrient forms of carbs like fruit and honey available in unlimited quantities, so are unnatural, low nutrient forms like processed sugar and corn syrups and our brains are still driven by this primitive instinct for sweet which can easily lead to overconsuming them.
If you do overconsume carbs and especially processed sugar on a regular basis, your body's dopamine signals become weaker and you develop tolerance, so you have to eat more sugar to get the same level of reward, which can eventually result in sugar addiction.
According to The USDA the average American consumes about 17 teaspoons of added sugars per day. [1]
This scenario is a major reason why so many Americans are metabolically unhealthy and overweight.
According to the most recent National Health and Nutrition Examination (NHANES) Survey published in February 2020, the age-adjusted prevalence of obesity in adults was 42.4 percent which is 2 in 5 people[2] and According to The National Diabetes Statistics Report 38.4 million people, which is 11.6 percent of the US population, have diabetes while 97.6 million people aged 18 years or older have prediabetes (38.0% of the adult US population).[3]
These are staggering statistics.
So how do you eliminate the sweet cravings and sugar addiction?
First, focus on consuming natural, whole food forms of carbs like fruit, raw dairy, and honey since they are nutrient dense, and fruit contains some fiber, so they will be much more satiating and won’t spike blood sugar as much as processed sugar.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a robust amount of research that has looked at the difference in how the body metabolizes whole food-based forms of carbs vs processed sugars but some studies like one published in The Journal of Metabolism in 2011 found an energy-restricted moderate natural fructose diet consisting of fruit resulted in more weight loss in obese subjects than a low-fructose diet, while both diets led to significant improvements in metabolic health markers like blood sugar levels and insulin resistance.[4]
Second, consume the right amount of carbs each day that fit your needs. If you’re a healthy sedentary person, meaning you do little to no exercise and work mostly at a desk, a lower end moderate carb diet of about 120-160 grams per day is going to be the best carb intake for you as it will support your body’s daily glucose needs without an excess that can be stored as body fat.
If you’re exercising at moderate intensities (50-65% max heart rate) then you will need about 25-50 grams more per hour of exercise depending on intensity and if you’re exercising at high intensities (above 70% max heart rate) you’ll need about 100 grams more per hour of exercise.
I cover how to determine the right amount of carbs to eat each day based on your specific needs in more detail in my free guide The Secret To Eating Carbs and Still Getting Lean, so make sure you download it if you haven’t already.
Third, eat the right amount of protein and fat each day that fits your needs. Ideally from the most nutrient dense sources which are grass fed meats like beef and lamb, along with organs like liver and heart, grass-fed butter, cheese, and eggs.
Fat and protein are very satiating because when you eat them you release hormones like Cholecystokinin (CCK) and Glucagon that signal you to feel full, and the high levels of nutrients from the sources I mentioned will also prevent excess hunger.
Depending on your lifestyle and exercise intensity, about .70-1 gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight each day is the right amount.
The right amount of fat intake can vary greatly depending on your body composition, goals, and exercise intensity and could be anywhere from 50-250 grams or more per day.
The best way to determine fat intake is to first determine protein and carb intake and then based on your body composition goals you will choose a fat intake that will allow you to be in a caloric deficit to if your goal is fat loss, a caloric surplus if your goal is muscle gain, or a maintenance level to maintain your current weight.
I walk you step by step through calculating your calories and macros for fat loss in my article on the topic so make sure to read that next, or watch the video, to get clear on this for your needs.
So, the combination of eating nutrient dense whole foods in the right amounts of carbohydrates, fat, and protein for your individual needs will improve your metabolic health, body composition, and has a very strong chance of eliminating your sweet cravings completely.
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References:
[1] U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2020. Food Patterns Equivalents Intakes from Food: Mean Amounts Consumed per Individual, by Gender and Age, What We Eat in America, NHANES 2017-2018. Available at: www.ars.usda.gov/nea/bhnrc/fsrg
[2] Hales CM, Carroll MD, Fryar CD, Ogden CL. Prevalence of Obesity and Severe Obesity Among Adults: United States, 2017-2018. NCHS Data Brief. 2020 Feb;(360):1-8. PMID: 32487284. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32487284/
[3] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Diabetes Statistics Report website. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/data/statistics-report/index.html. Accessed 3/5/24.
[4] Magdalena Madero, Julio C. Arriaga, Diana Jalal, Christopher Rivard, Kim McFann, Oscar Pérez-Méndez, Armando Vázquez, Arturo Ruiz, Miguel A. Lanaspa, Carlos Roncal Jimenez, Richard J. Johnson, Laura-Gabriela Sánchez Lozada,
The effect of two energy-restricted diets, a low-fructose diet versus a moderate natural fructose diet, on weight loss and metabolic syndrome parameters: a randomized controlled trial, Metabolism, Volume 60, Issue 11, 2011, Pages 1551-1559, ISSN 0026-0495, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.metabol.2011.04.001
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