Did you know that our body is in a constant state of regeneration? Guess where the building blocks for creating our body come from? That’s right they come from the food we eat! We are powerful co-creators of our health and appearance every single day.

In fact, our bodies have such miraculous regeneration prowess that the inner surface of our small intestine is replaced every 5 days. Our entire skin is replaced every 27 days. If you ever doubt that you are a co-creator of your appearance, look no further. Each day we participate in re-creating ourselves through our food choices. Do you see each meal as a special opportunity to nourish yourself? Are you providing optimum nutrition to yourself so that the cells in your body can repair and regenerate themselves? Do not pass this opportunity up lightly. This is the key to health and wellbeing!

Below is a list of nutrient-dense foods you should commit to having each day for optimum health. Make every mouthful count. This will be the mainstay of your dietary plan for creating a new you.

Nutrient-dense foods you will include daily:

• 3 or more serves of fruit (spread them out through the day)
• 5-9 serves of vegetables (go the extra mile by making 400ml – 500ml mixed vegetable juice)
• 3 serves of dairy products (endeavour to have 1-2 serves of yoghurt for healthy gut and bones)
• 2 handfuls of mixed nuts and seeds (especially walnuts, sunflower seeds and almonds)
• 1 serve of oily fish or omega-3 eggs or 100g lean meat
• 1 pot of green tea
• 2 serves or more of lentils, peas or beans
• 48g whole grain cereals

I cannot imagine there would be much space left for junk food after consuming all of the above. Congratulations for powerfully choosing to participate in creating the best you ever!

Foods containing pungent flavour are often rich in sulphur content. These foods not only are great mould deterrents, they also play vital roles in DNA repairs. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, garlic and onions are sulphur rich and powerful inducers of protective enzymes like superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase. They are also high in indoles and can inhibit colorectal, bladder, lung, mouth, throat, stomach and breast cancers.

Cruciferous vegetable are particularly rich in isothiocynates.  Isothiocyanates have amazing anti-aging properties; this is because they are potent inhibitors of enzymes that promote glycation.  Glycation occurs when oxidation of sugars coating the surface of proteins like collagen result in the formation of Advanced Glycated Endproducts – AGEs. As the name implies, AGEs literally cause premature aging with the formation of saggy, wrinkly skin.  Note that any external signs of aging are accompanied by the aging of  internal organs as well.  The external and internal are never mutually exclusive. 

This aging process is even more pronounced in diabetics as AGEs form more quickly with elevated blood sugar levels.  It is not uncommon for a diabetic diagnosed at the age of 30 to have a physiological age of 75 by the time they reach the chronological age of 60.  It is a well-known fact that accelerated aging comes with poorly controlled blood sugar levels.  Hence, to reduce age-related cell damage, diabetics should tuck into large quantities of these vegetables to decelerate the glycation process and its accompanying premature aging.
In conclusion, these vegetables protect you from DNA damage, stimulate cancer cell death (cell apoptosis) and keep you looking and feeling young. Why would you not eat heaps more of them daily?

How Do Sugar Cravings Develop?

As a dietitian, I have found from experience that individuals who eat haphazardly, eat very fast and eat a narrower range of uninteresting foods tend to develop sugar addictions. It is almost like form of compensation for an uninteresting palate.

Chronic dieters are particularly susceptible to erratic and uncontrollable sugar cravings. Do you put yourself on punishing diets and eat like a bird in the attempt to get to your goal weight by tomorrow? You may want to take a cold hard look at yourself to ascertain what it is that you are subjecting yourself to that is causing these addictions. I postulate that it could be due to a lack of balance. Balance is key in the taste sensations we get from our foods. There should be a mix of sour, sweet, hot, cold, bitter, salty, spicy taste sensations in our palate. These myriad of tastes sensations, food textures and mouth feels contribute to the enjoyment of food. If we enjoy each meal slowly, feel fully satisfied and stop just before we are full, we are less likely to develop sugar addictions.

Why do I Have Sugar Cravings?

Cravings can be linked to a drop in blood sugar levels. If your last meal was more than 6 hours ago, it is reasonable to expect hunger pangs to initial sugar cravings. After all, your body needs sugar to produce energy quickly. Particularly the brain – the only form of fuel the brain uses is sugar, not fat or protein. Consequently, it is natural for you to crave sugar when famished! To prevent these cravings, have a snack between your 3 main meals. Reach for some fruits, nuts or yoghurt.

Cravings can also arise from hormonal changes. Many women report that they crave sugar when they are pre-menstrual. Our emotional state is also largely responsible for our sugar cravings. Some people, when angry or under stress, find themselves polishing off an entire block of chocolate, half a cake and a whole pack of sweet biscuits. If you are one of those people, try to keep those emotions in check by taking time out to calm down before reaching for the bag of jelly beans. Some breathing exercises to relax could be useful!

Ways to Stop Sugar Cravings

Are you in the habit of eating something sweet after dinner? Do you like a bowl of ice cream after dinner? If you break this habit, you can conquer your post dinner sugar cravings.

Brush Your Teeth

Brushing your teeth at the end of the meal can readily reduce your craving. The toothpaste leaves a fresh minty flavour in your mouth and this makes you less likely to reach for something sweet.

Have Some Water

Often thirst is mistaken for hunger. We confuse the body’s messages. Tune in to your body’s cues and get a big glass of water instead of eat a bar of chocolate.

Do Something Different

Are you bored after spending hours at your desk? Get up and go for a walk instead of giving in to the urge to eat something sweet. Craving something sweet could just be a habit. The best way to stop the craving is to stop the habit altogether. Distract yourself another way, call a friend, go for a walk, take a long hot bath, listen to some music and start grooving or do some yoga.

If you can just delay satisfying your immediate food cravings, you can drastically reduce the amount of times you actually give in to them. They are called “moments” of weakness for that reason. If you can extend the “moment”, the weakness mat well pass, too.

Do anything but eat something sweet and break the habit. You might actually like yourself more for being stronger than your cravings!

Clear Your Pantry

Another way to reduce your sugar craving is to clear your pantry. Eliminate or store sweet foods in opaque jars so that they are “Out of sight and out of mind.”

Control the Quantities

If having coffee with friends or dining out, share the piece of cake or dessert. That way you cut down on half the sugar intake and get to enjoy exactly what you want. You are less likely to feel deprived and resentful of missing out on the sweet.

Stop your sugar cravings at home by giving yourself a bit of chocolate and keep the rest of the bar in a hard to reach place, like the rear of the top kitchen shelf. Then walk out of the kitchen and settle down somewhere else before you start eating.

When Shopping

Never shop when you are dangerously hungry. You will reach for the sweet treats unconsciously when you blood sugar levels are low. Eat something like a piece of fruit and a yoghurt before you commence shopping. Take a list with you and buy only what is on the list, nothing more!

Hypnosis to Stop Sugar Cravings

You might also want to give hypnosis a go as another complementary tool in your quest to stop sugar cravings. I have purchased a number of hypnosis mp3 recordings from the following site myself, and found them to be surprisingly effective. They are very reasonably priced and come with a risk-free 90-day money back guarantee – more than enough time to see if this works for you:

You might also like to try the more general Perfect Health hypnosis session:

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Sugar addiction is like any other addiction, only it is socially acceptable and therefore harder to incriminate.

100 Days of Empowerment

When you are completely stuck, it usually helps to attack a problem from a completely different angle. Have a look at the following video – it’s quite fun and so true!

A friend sent this to me, and I signed up for the program myself. Having been through the entire 100 days program now, I can whole-heartedly recommend it. Yeah sure, I do not have a problem with sugar cravings, but I am still human with plenty of other issues. And I can tell you, this program is full of positive, empowering messages that truly propel you each day to live a life you love! Create your own breakthroughs, go for your dreams – and walk down a different street!

UPDATE: The 100 Day Challenge is no longer available (closed since mid February). It will next be open in September, and you can sign up on the website to be alerted by email when it becomes available again.

Do you find this article useful? What are your breakdowns and breakthroughs in dealing with your cravings? What’s your plan of attack? I’d love to hear from you!