When your body is craving a certain type of food, it won’t let you forget. You’ll find yourself imagining that food over and over until you eat it. This is not helpful if you’re trying to lose weight or stick to a healthy lifestyle!
Food cravings are sometimes a sign that your body is missing something. For example it’s common to crave fruit when you’re actually dehydrated, Or you crave salt when you’re lacking in certain minerals. However, many food cravings are for sugar and fat, and have no link to deficiencies at all.
As humans, we’re programmed to like sweet and fatty foods. For our ancestors these foods provided fat and energy. These are valuable for survival when food supplies are low However, these days we can easily source an abundance of food. And that’s where the problems come in.
Overeating the wrong things leads to weight gain and all kinds of associated risks – heart disease, diabetes, stroke and more. But while we can’t change the way we’re wired as humans, there are things we can do to reduce cravings. And this makes it easier to lose weight Here are some ideas!
Eat a balanced diet
If you believe your food cravings are a result of vitamin deficiencies, speak to your doctor. She will run some blood work to pinpoint the issue. And from there you can take supplements and make lifestyle changes. Eating a balanced diet is beneficial in many ways
Limit added sugar
Have you looked at a food label lately? Sugar is dumped into almost everything. I’m talking about healthy soups, salad dressings, nut milks, yogurts, sauces, prepared foods and more. A few added grams of sugar here and there add up to a lot. And this of course disrupts blood sugar and causes cravings.
So read labels before you buy. And look for products that only have a small amount if any. Because this can greatly reduce hunger pangs and food cravings.
Restrict bad carbs
If you’ve been eating a balanced diet but still find that your hunger pangs and cravings are hard to control, here’s another option. Carbs are the body’s preferred energy source. They’re easy to break down to create the energy you need to move, digest, and maintain organ and brain function.
The trouble is, eat too many processed or bad carbs and you’ll store this energy as fat. Carbs digest as sugar. And sugars and simple carbs digest quickly. This gives a quick burst of energy. But then your body craves more and now you’re on an up and down energy roller coaster.
When you completely cut out carbs, your body switches to using its own fat reserves as fuel. Because your blood sugar isn’t being spiked with carbs, you don’t experience craving and false hunger pangs. Check out KetoLogic for more information about this.
Drink water
The body finds it difficult to distinguish between hunger and thirst. Food makes you feel good on a psychological level. It tastes nice. So when you feel physically uncomfortable, you may think you need a snack when you’re just thirsty.
It’s easy to get these signals confused. So keep yourself hydrated. And if you feel a pang of hunger, try drinking a glass of water first. This is useful between mealtimes, so you’re not constantly grazing.
Don’t be fat phobic
Many people are still phobic about fat. Even though low-fat diets aren’t as popular as they once were, many calorie conscious people also avoid fat. But this is a mistake.
Fat is the perfect food to eat when you’re experiencing cravings. Fat takes longer to digest than more other types of food. So it helps keep you feeling food. Cut back on sugar and refined carbs and replace those foods with some healthy sources of fat. Your hunger pangs won’t know what hit them.
Create rituals that don’t involve food
Sometimes you have cravings and hunger pains because you’ve taught your body to be hungry. Let’s say you curl up every night with a book and a salty snack. Your body starts craving the ritual of salt in the evening. Your ritual has trained you to physically crave salt.
So put another ritual in its place that will be rewarding. Maybe you snack on salty but healthy “asparagus fries” (asparagus and olive oil baked with sea salt). Or maybe you create a comforting evening ritual that has nothing to do with food like a relaxing Epsom salt bath.
But you need to replace these sabotaging food rituals with something else that’s rewarding. Because if you just rip away your evening chips without putting anything in its place, you’ll just focus on what you miss. And the cravings won’t go away.
So there you have some great ways to reduce cravings and hunger pains. Do you have a favorite method that wasn’t on this list? Of course let me know. I love hearing about all your healthy tips and tricks!
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