Junk food eats you up more than you eat it. It’s an alarming siren that burdens the body with the load of health disorders like high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular problems. If you’ve already started experiencing the fits of untimely cravings for sugars and sweets at odd night hours, it’s time that you gear up against the battle of replacing junk food with foods that curb sugar cravings.
Giving up on fatty and unhealthy junk food might seems particularly difficult when the mind develops a knack for taste more than nutrition. Besides, junk food has a pile of zero calories that are the biggest traitors that you don’t lose weight despite exercising. So, in order to end the never-ending loop of tasting one last forkful of unhealthy flavors for one last time, you need to first know a little more about sugar cravings causes.
5 Sugar Cravings Causes Everyone Relates To
Sugar cravings can be the outcome of:
- Stress
- Hormonal imbalance
- Calcium and magnesium deficiency
- Insomnia
- Iron and protein deficiency
7 Path-Breaking Tips On How to Avoid Junk Food Cravings
Quitting junk can be surprisingly as difficult as quitting caffeine. In fact, studies reveal that people tend to lose muscle mass when munching on junk food. It does not just discourage the body to lose weight and increasing metabolism, it also spikes the mind to secret Leptin – a hormone that increases hunger. If you too have been broken down with the habit of junk munching, you will certainly find a friend in the following 7 Tips on how to avoid junk food cravings.
- Trick Your Mind
If you can get your mind to believe that it’s getting an appetizing pleasure, you’ll be able to give up on unhealthy food habits quickly. The best way to do so is constantly chewing on flavorful, but sugar-free, gums for hours. You can also put your hands on foods that curb sugar cravings. The best options are chia seeds, low-fat yogurt, berries, prunes, and dates.
- Drink Enough Mineral Water
Drinking mineral water from time to time keeps your stomach full and can help you with the troubles of binge eating. This is also one of the best ways to lose weight and make up for the deficiency of calcium and potassium – the two biggest sugar cravings cause.
- Eat Protein Rich Snacks
Instead of munching on a bag of salty and fatty chips, chocolates, and ice creams, you can snack on high-protein and low-fat foods. Spinach rolls, yogurt, and smoothies made with gluten-free rolled oats are some of the best options.
- Divide Your Meals
It is quite obvious to feel hungry throughout the day when working. It’s particularly higher in people who are more active. Thus, dividing your daily 3 meals into 6 smaller ones will definitely suppress sugar cravings. Besides, you can replace fatty ingredients with foods that curb sugar cravings like fresh fruits, salmon, chicken broth, and vegetables.
- Consume Antioxidants
Sound weird, eh? But it’s true. Antioxidants in green tea, black tea, ginger tea, and oolong tea can badge down all sugar cravings causes. Then be it helping the body absorb more minerals, keeping the stomach fuller, putting a lid on hormonal disbalance, or flushing out toxins that can cause stress, antioxidants have it all. As a side treat, they help you lose weight twice faster as dieting can.
- Meditate to Sleep
Half the world’s problems can evaporate with a warm nap under the blanket. If you sleep right, hormones do not trigger up or down. Besides, a good nap is a stress buster and depression foe. And what could be better than meditation to calm down the overworked mind and induce sleep?
- Chew Slowly
The longer you take in chewing the food, the easier it is to convince your mind that the stomach has had its share of getting famished. This is by far one of the easiest tricks to gauge the feeling of sudden hunger. So, if you’re looking forward to finding a way how to avoid junk food cravings without much effort, then this is your safe place.
Remember, every wrong slice makes you lethargic, forcing you to miss out on a lot of moments you could have otherwise had if it wasn’t for obesity or cardiovascular diseases. So, simply follow the tricks above like a prayer every day and enjoy life as it comes.