You go to the supermarket with perfectly good intentions to buy healthy food only to find yourself speeding toward the sweet aisle. A sugar craving is your body’s way of telling you something.
Does your body need sugar? Yes, everyone needs sugar to maintain proper blood sugar levels in the body. Sugar is energy for your brain, muscles and organs. They all need glucose to function. The best form of this energy is from fruits, vegetables and complex carbohydrates that have fiber, vitamins and other minerals our bodies need.
So, how much sugar is good for you?
The NHS recommends 30 grams a day for a person over the age of 11. However many of us consume much more sugar on a daily basis.
When you eat sugar, the pancreas releases insulin to round up sugar and triage it. The first place your body tries to store sugar is in muscle, but when muscles are full it stores excess sugar in fat cells. The more sugar you eat, the more work your pancreas and liver have to do to clean things up and maintain equilibrium.
Your sugar craving may be telling you you’re lacking key nutrients in your diet. Ever notice how you can eat an apple or carrot that you don’t repeatedly crave it over and over again the same way you do sugar? How’s that possible? Don’t apples and carrots have naturally occuring sugar?
They do, but the big difference is that these foods have minerals and vitamins your body need. They also have fiber to balance the sugar. That fiber slows the absorption of sugar causing less of a spike. So stick to fruits, veggies, lean protein and keep hydrated.