It's winter, and the cold environment often puts you in slumber or makes you hang out in front of the fireplace, gulping that steamy hot chocolate and munching those cookies. But whether it is cold or not, a sweet tooth will always love sweets until it takes a toll on your body and you decided to end your sugar cravings.
It may sound difficult, but sweets are technically contributing to the ugly side effect you may experience sooner. While discipline is often highlighted in the cutting of foods like sweets, there must be something you cling to whenever you feel like eating them again.
Here are ways to end your sugar cravings, which are approved by nutritionists.
Read also: Chef Jean-Christophe Novelli's Low Sugar Desserts: Indulge Without Guilt
In an interview with Eat This Not That, McKell Hill, MS, RDN, LDN, and the founder of Nutrition Stripped shares that people crave sugar because of imbalanced diets.
Hill furthers that during mealtimes, people might be missing out on the ideal count of fiber that typically keeps a person full, or their meal is lacking protein to keep them satiated, or even healthy fats, which keeps the blood sugar stabilized. This only means that if you eat a well-balanced diet, sugar cravings won't have time to show themselves.
In an interview with the Independent, Jessica Sepel, founder of JS Health, shares that keeping the mealtime with regular and spaced out intervals will keep an individual feeling satiated. Sepel adds that having three meals a day with snacks in between will help feel fully satisfied throughout the day.
Meanwhile, Kate Scarlata, RDN from FODMAP, exclaims in an interview with Eat This Not That saying that skipping meals makes the body need fast fuel, making you grab the sugary thing next to you.
The idea of ending your cravings does not mean that you have to give them up. According to Mayo Clinic, you may include a small portion of the sweets in your diet so that you won't be so curious about the taste when you give them up. They add that it is better to enjoy a square of chocolate instead of giving them up altogether.
To avoid the added sugar, you may enjoy naturally sweet snacks. Bonnie Taub-Dix, RDN, recommends thorough Eat This Not That in trying to make a trail mix that encompasses almonds, dry fruit, and a few dark chocolate chips.
According to Taub-Dix, these mixes will provide the sweetness people might be looking for and the protein and healthy fats from the nuts and iron and fiber from the fruit, which is beneficial for the body.
Sepel shares with the Independent that eating fruit in the morning has a triggering effect on an individual's sugar cravings. Sepel adds that in a personal clinical experience, consuming fruits in the afternoon triggers sugar cravings later in the day, and her clients report reduced cravings when they eat them in the morning.
Trying these different ways to end sugar cravings might help you induce the love for it. Remember that even though you are excellent in adhering to these ways, they are nothing if you have no will power and discipline to control them. At the end of the day, you still have the choice.
Related article: Top 10 Drinks Worse Than A Can Of Coke
WATCH: Here's How You End Your Sugar Addiction from Cleveland Clinic