Contents:
- Medical Video: Break Your Sugar Addiction in 10 Days
- Is it addicted to sweet food (sugar craving)?
- What is the process of sweet food addiction?
- Health effects of sugar craving
- How to overcome addiction to sweet foods
- Avoid things that trigger you to eat sweet foods
- Improve diet
- Regular physical activity
- Avoid consuming artificial sweeteners and added sugars
Medical Video: Break Your Sugar Addiction in 10 Days
The desire to eat sweet and high-calorie foods has been programmed in our brain since birth. The desire to consume as many calories as possible is a human instinct for survival. But along with changing times, sugar and high-calorie foods are easier to obtain. This also triggers changes in life with high sugar consumption and causes sugar craving aka addicted to sweet foods.
Is it addicted to sweet food (sugar craving)?
Sugar craving is one form of addiction or addiction that occurs in the brain because of the consumption of excess sugar. Adding sweet foods is often not realized because it blends with our daily diet. This has become a big problem when we tend to eat large amounts of food shortly after tasting sweet foods.
The process of addiction is characterized by the brain's response to sweet foods causing the secretion of serotonin and endorphins which make us more calm or known as "neurological reward" The habit of consuming sweet foods also causes a decrease in the performance of the hormone leptin to give signals to the brain that we still have enough calories. The result is an increase in the desire to consume food, especially sweet foods.
What is the process of sweet food addiction?
Everyone who experiences it sugar craving have different triggers, but the process of wanting to eat sweet foods again can be explained simply as follows:
- Consumption of sweet foods derived from sugar or artificial sweeteners causes glucose levels to rise very high.
- After stopping consuming sweet foods or drinks, conditions occur crash where blood glucose levels drop very dramatically.
- This condition makes the body react to trigger hunger or the desire to consume sweet foods again, to restore blood sugar levels such as after eating.
- If you respond to hunger by eating sweet foods again, it will cause the process to return to normal and cause the desire to consume sweet foods increases.
Health effects of sugar craving
The condition of addiction causes a person to want to consume sugar continuously. If it is not fulfilled, it can cause various behavioral changes such as less stable emotions, difficulty concentrating, or hyperactivity. Not consuming sugar for some time can also cause anxiety, not enthusiasm, or feel sleepy.
Excessive consumption of sweetness causes unnecessary storage of calories, because basically it has been fulfilled from other types of food, although it does not have too sweet taste. Sugar craving cause nutritional imbalances because we prefer foods that are high in glucose than foods that contain vitamins, minerals, protein and fiber. The result can trigger excessive fat accumulation and disrupt the balance of cholesterol levels in the body. In a long time, this triggers obesity and causes various degenerative diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
How to overcome addiction to sweet foods
Avoid things that trigger you to eat sweet foods
Some things that trigger stress or interfere mood may be a trigger for you to eat sweet snacks. This unwittingly causes difficulties to stop eating snacks. If this happens to you, overcome it by avoiding sources of stress for a moment and choosing activities that tend to distract yourself such as reading books, watching movies, or talking with friends or family.
Improve diet
Snacking sweet foods can also be triggered because of eating habits when you start feeling hungry. To keep the body feeling full longer, add food sources that contain protein and fiber. In addition, prevent a decrease in excess blood sugar levels by consuming healthy fiber-rich snacks such as whole wheat, fruit, and vegetables every 2-4 hours after mealtime.
Regular physical activity
High consumption of sugar can cause brain mechanisms to produce endorphins instantly, and this habit will be difficult to eliminate. One way to overcome this is to replace the mechanism of formation of endorphins by physical activity. Exercising can also distract from consumption of sweets and can help the body absorb nutrients better.
Avoid consuming artificial sweeteners and added sugars
Sugar craving not only related to high sugar consumption patterns but the problem of addiction to sugar consumption. Consumption of artificial sweeteners, in addition to being unhealthy, cannot help overcome the effects of addiction because the brain can still respond to sweetness. Consuming foods with a "low fat" label is also not good if you want to deal with it sugar craving because it has extra sugar.
READ ALSO:
- 8 Symptoms That Show You Too Much Sugar Consumption
- Sugar vs. Artificial Sweeteners, Which Is Better?
- How Much Salt Is Safe for Children to Eat?
