Tips for how to stop sugar cravings include consuming foods that increase satiety (the feeling of fullness), reduce hunger, balance blood sugar levels, and stimulate the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter related to feelings of pleasure and well being. These include foods like bananas, oats, nuts, and seeds.

In addition, eating foods that improve gut health, such as probiotic yogurt, helps increase satiety and promote weight loss in addition to decreasing cravings for sugary foods.

Regular physical exercise is also important to improve hormone levels and reduce stress and anxiety that can contribute to sugar cravings and increase the risk for developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and cavities.

woman with hand up refusing a piece of cake

1. Cutting back on sweets

Eating fewer sweets, including avoiding sugary drinks and foods high in sugar, is an excellent strategy to stop sugar cravings once and for all. This is because gradually reducing sugar intake helps the palate adapt and stop craving sugar.

One way to cut down on sugar is to decrease the amount of sugar in your coffee. For example, if you usually add 3 spoonfuls of sugar to your coffee, try cutting down slowly over time.

2. Consuming foods high in protein and healthy fats

Foods high in protein and healthy fats, such as lean meats, fish, full fat dairy products, avocado, soy, and nuts, help increase satiety and reduce hunger. They also help to balance blood sugar levels, which can help prevent cravings.

Tips for adding protein and healthy fats to your diet include eating a hard boiled egg for breakfast; adding chicken breast, tuna, salmon, or cheese to your salad at lunch; and drinking a sugar-free avocado smoothie for an afternoon snack. Check out other high protein foods.

3. Eating plain yogurt

Plain yogurt has no added sugar and does not contain artificial colors or flavors. It is made from milk fermented with good bacteria that use lactose as a source of energy. Eating plain yogurt daily can increase the number of good bacteria in your gut, helping maintain a healthy gut flora. This is important for people who want to cut back on sweets because an imbalance in the gut can send signals to the brain that trigger cravings for sugar.

Adding plain yogurt to smoothies or dessert recipes like panna cotta is a good way to gradually introduce plain yogurt to your diet and become accustomed to the flavor. You can also add oats or chia seeds to increase satiety and decrease cravings.

4. Avoiding soft drinks

Beverages like soda, energy drinks, and sports drinks contain high quantities of sugar. Avoiding these drinks can greatly reduce the amount of sugar you consume each day, and the less sugar you eat, the less you crave it.

Increasing your water intake during the day can help to reduce sugar cravings. You can also try replacing soft drinks with carbonated cucumber or mint water, teas, and fruit juice without added sugar. Check out these infused water recipes.

5. Eating every 3 hours

Eating small meals every few hours helps to regulate levels of glucose in the blood and reduce sugar cravings. Going too long between meals results in a drop in energy levels that triggers the brain to send out hunger signals that increase sugar cravings.

For this reason, it is important to avoid skipping meals and to eat snacks between meals.

6. Choosing whole foods

Whole foods are high in fiber that helps increase satiety and control blood sugar levels by slowing down sugar absorption in the gut. This can help reduce sugar cravings.

A good tip is to choose whole wheat pasta and brown rice, which have a higher fiber content, and include other whole grains in your diet.

7. Reducing intake of simple carbs

Reducing your intake of simple carbs, like white bread, cookies, pasta, soda, cakes, and other snack foods, can help prevent rapid spikes and sudden drops in blood sugar levels. Stable blood sugar levels can help suppress appetite and prevent sugar cravings.

These types of carbs can also cause an imbalance of the gut flora, which can trigger cravings for sugar. Cutting back on simple carbs can therefore help decrease the urge to eat large amounts of sugar during the day.

8. Eating green banana biomass

Green banana biomass is high in resistant starch, a type of fiber that serves as food for good bacteria in the gut. Fiber also increases satiety and decreases hunger, thereby reducing sugar cravings. Bananas are also high in tryptophan, an amino acid used by the body to produce serotonin, which is associated with a sense of pleasure and well being.

Green banana biomass can be used in recipes for cakes and Stroganoff and to thicken soups and stews.

9. Eating oats

Oats are high in fiber, such as beta glucan, that increases satiety, controls hunger, decreases fat absorption, and prevents blood sugar spikes. By slowing down digestion and absorption of nutrients, fiber can help reduce cravings for sugar.

Oats also contain inulin, another type of fiber that promotes the growth of good bacteria in the gut, which is essential to maintaining a healthy gut balance. This can help decrease sugar cravings in addition to other benefits like reducing cholesterol and triglycerides and increasing the absorption of minerals in the gut.

You can increase your consumption of oats by adding a tablespoon of oats to plain yogurt or putting them in the blender with milk and fruit to make a smoothie. See overnight oats recipes.

10. Eating nuts and seeds

Chia seeds, linseed, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds are high in magnesium, which is a mineral that stimulates the production of serotonin, a hormone related to mood and well being. Increased production of serotonin can help decrease sugar cravings. In addition to magnesium, chestnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts also contain zinc, selenium, and omega-3s, nutrients that reduce stress and anxiety to help control cravings.

11. Adding more fruits

Fruit is high in fiber that increases satiety and decreases sugar absorption in the gut, helping to balance blood sugar and reduce hunger that can lead to sugar cravings.

A great way to meet your daily requirement is to eat fruit for dessert or snacks, adding fruit to yogurt or making fruit smoothies.

12. Taking probiotics

Probiotics are good bacteria found in natural foods like yogurt, kefir, and kombucha that also come in the form of capsules or powder that can be taken as supplements.

Taking these supplements helps the body to maintain healthy gut flora, which can reduce sugar cravings by regulating signals sent out by the brain to eat more sugar.