How can I Overcome Cravings for Sweets?

I am so like you. I'd live on sweets if I could. I've found honey to be a healthy craving-squasher. Sometimes a teaspoon will do but other times three or four spoons full. It's healthy, unlike sorbitol, which gives me a stomach ache. Also once a week, have a small treat like a Milky Way or a Curly Wurly. Good luck!

This information is terrible! Diet soda, sugar substitutes -- his is crap! You would be healthier eating small amounts of the real deal.

When craving, a better idea is to drink some water, try some fruit, maybe chew some gum, try something salty to curb the appetite like a small amount of popcorn, etc. Bottom line: Disregard everything said in this poorly written article.

I'm super disappointed, Wise Geek! This is crap advice that might have first appeared as part of a crash diet in Women's Day circa 1982. This is not only misinformation, but it can cause sickness if people follow your advice!

With all of the more recent and credible human and animal studies over years of exposure to chemically treated, bleached, altered or 'sugar-derived' sweeteners (that's what sugar substitutes are: genetic/molecular mutations of what was once a natural plant substance) that have caused illness, cancers and sensitivities, this is what you give us? Sad.

Even diabetics are finding they are better able to control sugars with small amounts of real sugar. I agree completely with anon99600 and carpusdiem about actually giving us an answer including the physiology of sugar craving and chemical addiction, because that's what happens when your body gets used to fake foods instead of healthy real ones.

I've witnessed this with my own family members and they've died or suffered from preventable illnesses at young ages! Another who practically lives on diet soda is balding horribly, has insomnia, fatigue and serious skin conditions-and still is in denial about the severe effect of her canned addiction.

Any kind of fake sweetener, particularly Splenda, or MSG give me nearly instant headaches and that's proof enough for me that my body needs real food! God forbid children are exposed to these chemicals before they have the ability to choose healthful food and drink. The reader comments to this post are far more informative than the post itself-obviously you have many smart readers out there. Please do us justice with your posts!

Where is this site getting its outdated information? Are they on the payroll of the soda industry? Do not drink "diet" soda, you hear me? It is even worse for you than regular soda and doesn't make you lose weight or reduce the sweet cravings.

Artificial sweetener in anything is bad stuff, and as for sugar free chocolates and candies - be sure you're near a bathroom later!

I think there should be a disclaimer here, simply stating that none of this is a substitute for advice from a doctor or nutritionist.

I'm sorry Wise Geek, but this sounds very much like advice from a novice based on personal experience and opinion. Nutritional research doesn't even seem to be a factor, which it should be.

You made just one ginormous error, one of omission. The reason why we crave sweet things has not even been mentioned.

In many cases, me included, I too have had a lifelong craving for sugary things. The reason? It's in our physiology. Our brain chemistry, to be precise. When the brain triggers a craving for sweet things, it does so for a reason.

When sugary things are consumed, most amino acids floating around in our bloodstream are washed out, so to speak, with the exception of L-tryptophan, the precursor of serotonin. With a higher ratio of L-tryptophan to the other amino acids, more of it crosses the blood-brain barrier and converts to serotonin, a chemical related to pain, sleep, mood, and a feeling of being satisfied after a meal. Generally speaking, it's a feel-good chemical.

Don't you feel better after stuffing your face with a chocolate eclair or a block of chocolate than what you did before? One way of combating this is to consume more carbohydrates without sugar, like wholemeal rice and bread, and do not deprive yourself of a daily treat of sugar, just keep it small.

One problem of eliminating an addiction or craving for something by eliminating that something often just replaces it with another addiction or craving. So the secret in 80 percent of cases is to consume non-sugar-laden types of carbs instead of the sugary types.

Switching to diet sodas is not the answer. Did you know it is harder to get off diet soda than regular soda? Diet soda is addictive!

To eliminate cravings for sweets/carbs, I had to go off all carbs for ten days--works, but first seven days are hard (but doable).

Don't keep anything with sugar around the house because sure enough, when you get that craving, you're going to eat the whole thing.

Often times people consume sugar because it gives them an energy boost and helps for a wee bit of time with feeling 'down'. Taking a B Complex vitamin has been shown according to doctors to help with energy and depression issues.

A doctor friend who is wise when it comes to diet issues, also noted that drinking plenty of water for a few days, will flush the liver and kidneys out and thus give you a fresh start when removing sugar from your diet. Sugar as in any sweetener that is in beverages, canned goods, cookies or any manufactured food items. ~MotherLode Beth~

What works for me is going with chocolate that has a high cacao content. You can even enjoy a whole bar everyday if you buy one with a 86 percent cacao content. Also whey shakes with almond milk (instead of the usual cows milk). One last hint is try truvia instead of sugar. Add a couple of servings to the whey shakes too -- it's yummy. Cravings are quelled.

Are you kidding? Diet soda? Not healthy at all!

The best rule of thumb to follow when choosing foods is to eat foods as close to their natural source as possible; and completely eliminate all processed foods, fast foods, and white flour and sugar. Stevia is a wholesome substitute for sugar. It does have an after taste but depending on what it is mixed with, it may be undetectable.

Have been off sugar for about two months, have lost a lot of pounds. Major withdrawal symptoms to get sugar out of the system.

Wise Geek, you say substitute sugar with substitute sugar products? That is bad news! any diet products containing Aspartame, or any other form thereof is very harmful to the body. People should do research before ingesting those poisons.

My theory is that people who crave sweets are lacking some substance, be it a vitamin, mineral or something else, that separately or in addition to habit, causes the craving.

It has been found that sufficient daily intake of vitamin D and calcium reduces cravings for fatty foods. Maybe there is an element, or combination of them that would do the same for sweets?