Resist sweets, feel full of energy through the day, control your weight and put an end to breakouts!
- Learn why we can’t seem to stop when it comes to sugar
- Eat foods that quickly crush cravings, not make them worse!
- Use these amazing superfoods to kick the sugar habit for good
Sugar is extremely addictive! We’re hard-wired to seek out sweet tastes, which is a remaining trait from the times when sweet food was hard to come by.
Our ancestors would gorge on fruit, when they were lucky enough to find it. The fruit were very small in size, barely sweet and, if they lived in the Northern hemisphere, were only available in summer. This was a way of building up a store of energy as fat for the lean winter months, when food was scarce.
Unlike our hunter-gatherer ancestors, our winter never comes, with supermarkets stocking fruit and sugary foods all year around, and so we can put on weight very easily.
“The fruit our ancestors ate were small in size, barely sweet and available only in winter.”
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The Negative Effects of Sugar
Sugar in all its forms, including fruit, milk, cakes, cookies, candy, ice cream, sweets, and sports drinks, can be damaging when you eat a lot all at once.
Empty calories – With the exception of whole, raw fruit, sweet foods tend to offer very little in the way of vitamins, minerals, healthy fats and protein. They are densely packed with calories but not much else!
In the long-term, sugary foods reduce your nutrient status because we use up our stores of vitamins and minerals to process these empty calorie foods. When we are low in vitamins and minerals our health suffers – you may find you’re more susceptible to colds and flu, have slower metabolism, poor hormonal balance and are fatigued.
Weight-gain – Sugar is the key that switches on our fat storing mode. Our bodies are not built to consume it in the high quantities of a typical western diet. Sugar disrupts our body’s metabolic and hormonal processes, and is the root of so many problems like diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
Skin conditions – Lots of sugar, especially fructose, which is added to foods and is very high in commercial fruit juices, puts an excessive load on your liver (where your body processes it). When the liver can’t cope, then toxins cause the skin to break out with spots, redness, and conditions like psoriasis.
Sugar is also a wrinkle monster! It attaches to fibres in our skin matrix, causing them to become rigid and this is visible in lines and sagging on your face.
8 Foods To Kick Sugar Cravings
Satisfying foods that work to balance your energy and hormones, kill your sugar craving and stop your next one!
1. Organic Burst Spirulina
This is a wonderfood for cravings! Spirulina is the most digestible protein food [1] that quickly satisfies hunger. Its protein is 4x more absorbable than protein that comes from beef. It also delivers an array of vitamins and minerals including Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, B12 that help your body make more energy.
If your diet includes processed foods, you never feel satisfied because you aren’t getting enough vitamins and minerals, so adding 1-2 doses of Organic Burst Spirulina every day will help get you back up to healthy levels and stop those cravings coming!
“Sweet cravings could be caused by vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Take 1-2 tsp spirulina daily.”
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2. Avocado
Eat ½ an avocado when you have a sugar craving to give your body some healthy fats that are far more satisfying and give you longer lasting energy.
A sprinkle of Himalayan pink salt and fresh pepper on your avo will provide extra taste, minerals and help digestion so your appetite is curbed even faster.
3. Chia Seeds
These amazing little seeds can absorb up to 10 times their own weight in liquid, so they make you feel full quickly, preventing snacking and overeating. Mix 1 tablespoon of Organic Bust Chia Seeds in 3 tbsp water to form a gel-like substance (made up of soluble fibre) which helps shield the body from absorbing sugars too quickly.
You can then stir this into foods like quinoa porridge, blend into a smoothie, or add some almond milk and eat as a mini (non-sweet) pudding.
4. Nuts
They contain fibre, protein and healthy fats, which all take longer to digest than simple sugars or carbohydrates. Your body will be working away on a handful of nuts, steadily releasing energy over a period of 2-3 hours!
Find out more about nuts and nut butter here.
5. Organic Burst Wheatgrass
This light powder is made from the young green leaves of the wheat plant (but totally gluten-free) where all the important fibre is preserved to help you feel fuller. Organic Burst Wheatgrass is packed with energy-metabolising minerals including manganese to support your energy levels.
Try a spoonful in a glass of water with a squeeze of lemon juice when you have a craving, and you’ll soon feel livelier.
Or make a filling wheatgrass latte instead of a snack – simply add 1tsp Organic Burst Wheat to a glass of plant-based milk and 1tsp rice malt syrup to sweeten a little.
6. Raw Dark Chocolate
This is slightly cheating because chocolate is a sweet food, but eating a square or 2 of very high quality dark chocolate (80%) contains only a tiny amount of sugar and it will stop your craving.
The strong, bitter flavor (from its antioxidants!) means you’re very unlikely to overeat this type of chocolate, instead it satisfies and gives you a little buzz.
To avoid refined sugar altogether and make your chocolate snack as nutritious as possible, make your own raw chocolates! It’s so easy to do with just a few ingredients. Try these tasty chlorella chocolates.
7. Coconut
Coconut in all its formats is a great snack to crush cravings because it contains medium-chain-triglycerides, these are a special type of fat that your body processes in the liver quickly for fast energy.
Coconut works well as an ingredient in smoothies, energy bites and healthy baking, but you could also grab a spoonful or handful when you’re on the go.
Try a tablespoon of coconut oil, some coconut flakes, shredded coconut, coconut milk or creamed coconut.
“Have a tablespoon of coconut flakes, coconut milk or creamed coconut when you crave something sweet.”
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8. Kale Chips
Get a satisfying crunch from this healthy snack, without the sugars and refined carbs found in potato and corn chips.
Kale can help stop the cycle of cravings because it is densely packed with nutrients like Vitamins A, C and K, plus minerals including calcium and copper, which are all involved in how your body makes its cellular energy.
Resources:
[1] Spirulina protein http://iimsam.org/en/iimsam-spirulina-resource-centre/
LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
Which foods do you rely on to stop your cravings? Share your experiences with your fellow Bursters below!