Many people experience sugar cravings, often leaving them puzzled about their origins. Understanding the deficiencies behind these cravings is crucial for making informed and healthier dietary choices.
By identifying the top 10 causes, you can gain insights into your body’s needs and address them effectively.
The Eating Enlightenment Food Journal App is an invaluable companion on this journey. Tracking your cravings, emotional eating, and binges provides compassionate support to enhance your self-awareness and promote healthier eating habits.
With these tools, you can uncover the root causes of your sugar cravings and make positive changes that align with your holistic wellness goals.
What are sugar cravings a sign of?
1 – Blood Sugar Levels Fluctuating (aka, Not Eating Enough)
When blood sugar levels fall below average (80 milligrams/deciliter), hunger increases, and we crave sugary foods.
Once we eat some sugary foods, insulin gets released from the pancreas to restore blood sugar levels.
And once blood levels return to normal, hunger and cravings will subside.
This is why people may feel satisfied after eating a snack or drinking something sweet like juice: their blood sugars are back up to their natural level.
The solution? Eat regular meals throughout the day with healthy fats. This will ensure that insulin sensitivity stays high and that blood sugar levels fluctuate minimally between fasting and fed states.
2 – Water Deficiency (aka, Dehydration)
A common cause of low blood sugar levels and food cravings, in general, is Dehydration, which can cause different reasons:
a) Dehydration from drinking too much-caffeinated drinks.
Caffeine causes the body to lose fluids through urination and sweat. Therefore, if you consume a lot of caffeine, your system will have less water.
This leads to Dehydration because we need adequate fluid for our bodies to function correctly.
b) Too much alcohol consumption also dehydrates us!
Alcoholic beverages have diuretic properties that force more fluid out of the kidneys into urine.
Even though it may seem like these beverages are hydrating us on their own, they do not hydrate as well! Because they remove all the water when they pass through the kidneys.
c) Do not drink water throughout the day.
It’s easy toIt’sget to drink water throughout the day. Here’s my trick:
Whenever I eat something,g I take a glass of water. Of course, I forget sometimes, but if you have a rule of thumb to always drink when you eat, this will help!
So be sure to curb your sugar craving by hydrating!
3 – Magnesium Deficiency
According to Harvard, magnesium deficiency can cause many health impacts, including bone loss, type 2 diabetes, heart disease,e and more.
It’s easy to eat magnesium and start to crave sugar. Fortunately, you can quickly boost your magnesium levels by eating more magnesium-rich foods.
Some of the best sources are:
- nuts
- seeds
- beans
- leafy greens
- dark chocolate
4 – Stress (Relaxation Deficiency)
The link between stress and sugar cravings is well documented.
When stressed, your blood sugars get out of balance and send signals for more sweet treats.
Then you’ll crave it because eating sugar releases serotonin, a mood-boosting hormone.
The best way I’ve found to reduce my cravings? Yoga!
Without yoga training, I could never relax. But now I practice, ce yoga daily, and my sugar cravings are significantly reduced.
Of course, we now know how important it is to manage our stress and relax to control this craving cycle. The process starts with being mindful about what we consume and eating low-glycemic foods.
Some low glycemic foods:
- vegetables
- nuts
- beans instead of refined carbohydrates such as white bread and pasta
5 – Zinc Deficiency
Lacking zinc is a common cause of sugar cravings because the body needs zinc to stabilize blood sugar levels.
Zinc deficiency can lead to a variety of health problems, including skin rashes, depression,n, and low libido. It is also integral for the function of almost 300 enzymes in all cells, which helps with DNA replication and cell division.
Specific food sources contain high amounts of this vital mineral:
- oysters
- lean beef
- pumpkin seeds
- almonds
- sesame seeds
- eggs (especially egg yolks)
- whole grains such as oats and brown rice
As a bonus, these foods are generally lower on the glycemic index,x, so they will not make youcrave more sweets afterward!
6 – Sleep Deficiency
Sleep and sugar start with the letter’S, but they have more similarities than a single letter.
Your hormonal balance is out of whack when you don’t sleep well. Your insulin sensitivity is reduced, leaving the body susceptible to extra fat storage.
Lack of sleep can cause a double chin that didn’t exist before, not just around the hips but also under the chin!
It is apparent that people deprived of beauty lack certain qualities; the rest are energy and alertness.
But if you’re not getting energy and you’re slowing down for whatever reason (stress, illness), this can lead to frequent fluctuations in your glucose level, increasing your cravings for sugary foods.
But there’s more: hunger hormthere’st throwhungerthere’sesoo, so cravings for sweet or salty snacks become more potent than usual.
If you need more sleep, here are some tips 🙂
- Keep a consistent sleep schedule. Sleep, like other bodily functions, is governed by circadian rhythms. If you sleep well, your body will soon associate specific times with feeling tired or sleepy.
- Don’t spend an hour in bed scrolling through Facebook or doing anything else that might keep you up late. Screens’ blue lights, screens’ me at lights, screens’ referencing off an internal alarm clock that tells you it’s not time to go. It’s until it’s night!
- Exercise it’s in the day rather than at night. This is especially true if exercise makes you feel energized afterward, as this can also cause insomnia.
- If you know what triggers nighttime trips to the bathroom (for example, caffeine intake too close to bedtime), avoid those things during evening hours.
7 – Sugar Cravings Caused By Dieting
Dieting is another prevalent cause of all types of food cravings, s including sugar.
When you restrict your food intake to lose weight, your body responds by ramping up its hunger hormones and cravings for everything.
Sugar is a quick fix for giving your body an energy boost that might last 30 minutes before the sugar crash begins.
- Don’t go on restrictive diets.. won. It requires you to restrict foods for weeks because this will lead to sugar cravings later on!
- Eat enough protein every day (especially if it’s animal-based). This helps ease cravings by balancing out glucose levels and increasing serotonin production in your body.
8 – Chromium Deficiency
Lack of chromium, an essential mineral, can also cause sugar cravings.
Here are a few quick tips to get more chromium in your body:
- Eat foods high in chromium,m such as whole grains, potatoes, wheat germ, and broccoli, when your sugar cravings are on the rise.
- Take a chromium supplement to regulate sugar levels. While it’s not the same as eating well, it can help lower your cravings and keep you from consuming more sweets in one day than needed.
This mineral will also improve insulin resistance. A lack of insulin resistance causes mood swings and sluggishness, leading people to temptation.
9 – Brain Fatigue
Brain fatigue is like stress, but it’s different because sometimes the brain gets tired when it is not stressed.
For example, have you ever been super-concentrated and worked 3 hours straight?
- I am a big fan of chess, and if I play it, I can concentrate on it for hours.
- If you’re an artist who can paint your end, you can relate to
- Sometimes, people who play video games can likewise concentrate for hours!
But after concentrating for hours, your brain needs a break. During this break, your brain may start to crave sugary food.
The first reason this can happen is that your brain burns many calories during intense concentration during intense concentration. In a chess tournament, players can burn 6000 calories in just 6s because they are concentrating hard. This sounds wild, but it’s true!
If you burn 6000 calories, you’re hungry, and your blood sugar level will fluctuate.
Another reason sugar cravings come after concentrating is that your brain needs to stop thinking! If you are focused super hard, you will often get food cravings for carbs, too.
So be you’re giving your brain a break, even if you aren’t stressed 🙂
10 – Low-fat foods, Fat-free
Fat-free is a marketing trick. Food companies remove all the fat but then replace it with sugar!
They replace the fat with sugar so their food products are still tasty. But they conveniently forget to tell you they did this! They only place a big health sticker on the front saying ‘fat-free,’ without mentioning the sugar.
Yogurt is a prevalent example of this. Go to your store next time and grab the first fat-free yogurt you see. Look at the ingredients! I guarantee you won’t see fat, but you will know no sugar!
If you’re eating tons of gluten-free, low-fat food, then you could start craving sugar because you are scrying sugar all the time!
What Deficiency Causes Sugar Cravings Conclusion:
In conclusion, many different deficiencies cause sugar cravings.
I suggest you work on each deficiency one week at a time. Start by getting more sleep and eating more regularly.
Then, hone in on your diet to address mineral and magnesium deficiencies the next week while focusing on your diet.
Then switch gears, give your brain a break, k and take some time during the day to destress.
Do let me know in the comments below – what deficiency causes sugar cravings for you!
