Are you a sugar addict or think you might be? The first thing you should know is it’s not your fault. Your brain is hardwired to crave sweet foods. Your body runs on sugar — glucose to be precise. Glucose fuels the cells that make up your body — including brain cells (neurons).

Way back during evolutionary times, our primitive ancestors were scavengers. Sweet foods are excellent sources of energy, so we evolved to find sweet foods particularly desirable. Foods with unpleasant, bitter and sour tastes may be unripe, poisonous or rotting — possibly making us sick if we eat them. So to ensure our survival as a species, our brain leads us to crave sugary foods.

When we eat sugary foods the brain’s reward system — called the mesolimbic dopamine system — gets activated. Dopamine is a brain chemical released by neurons that signals an event was positive. When the reward system fires, it reinforces behaviours — making it more likely for us to repeat these behaviours.

Dopamine “hits” from eating sugar encourage us to seek out more of these foods. Our environment today is abundant with sweet, energy rich foods. We don’t have to forage for these special sugary foods — they’re available everywhere. Unfortunately, our brain is still very similar to our ancestors, and it really likes sugar. So what happens in the brain when we excessively consume sugar?

The brain is constantly remodelling and rewiring itself through a process called neuroplasticity. This rewiring also happens in the reward system. Repeated activation of the reward pathway by eating lots of sugary foods causes the brain to adapt to frequent stimulation, leading to a sort of tolerance. In the case of sweet foods, this means we need to eat more to get the same rewarding feeling — a classic feature of addiction.

The Brain Wants Sugar, Then More Sugar

Many people experience food cravings, particularly when stressed, hungry or just faced with a tempting display of pastries in a coffee shop.

A recent study asked people to rate how much they wanted to eat high-calorie snack foods when they were feeling hungry versus when they had recently eaten. The people who regularly ate a high-fat, high-sugar diet rated their cravings for snack foods higher even when they weren’t hungry. This suggests that regularly eating high-sugar foods could boost cravings — creating a vicious circle of wanting more and more.

Cravings are driven by your brain’s need for a “reward” — not your body’s need for food. You can create new pathways in your brain by choosing a pleasurable activity other than eating when you experience cravings. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. Talk to a friend. Call or meet someone who understands what you’re going through. Explain that you’re going through a craving and ask for a few words of encouragement.
2. Go for a brisk walk outside. This serves two purposes. First, you’re distancing yourself from the food that you are craving. Second, the exercise will release endorphins, or “feel good” chemicals in your brain, which can help turn the craving off. If you can’t go outside, do a few exhausting sets of burpees, push-ups, body weight squats or any other body-weight exercise.
3. Eat a piece of dark chocolate, at least 85%, with a handful of raw almonds. The bitter taste of the chocolate combined with the protein and healthy fat in the almonds will stop your cravings cold.

Do This to Prevent Cravings

1. Drink a glass of water. Dehydration can cause cravings.
2. Avoid artificial sweeteners. If you feel that artificial sweeteners trigger cravings for you, you might want to avoid them. Artificial sweeteners can be 150 times sweeter than sugar but have little or no calories. What’s not to like? For one thing, they may make you crave sweets more and lead to unhealthy food choices.
3. Eat more protein and healthy fats. Protein is great for satiety, and it may help with cravings as well.
4. Sleep well. Getting proper, refreshing sleep is important for overall health and may help prevent cravings.
5. Avoid excess stress. Same as with sleep, avoiding stress can help prevent cravings.
6. Avoid certain triggers. Try to avoid specific activities or places that give you cravings, such as walking past McDonald’s.
7. Take a multivitamin. This will help prevent any deficiencies.
8. Make a list. It can be very helpful to carry a list of the reasons you want to eat healthy, as it can be hard to remember such things when you get a craving.
9. Don’t starve yourself. Try to prevent yourself from becoming too hungry between meals.

Don’t worry. There’s hope for sugar addicts. The brain’s neuroplasticity capabilities allow it to reset somewhat following cutting down on dietary sugar, and physical exercise can add to this process. Foods rich in omega-3 fats (found in fish oil, nuts and seeds) are also neuroprotective and can boost brain chemicals needed to form new neurons. While it’s not easy to break habits like always eating dessert or making your coffee a double-double, your brain and your body will thank you for taking steps towards making positive changes.

Debbie Kumpf is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, Personal Training Specialist and sugar addict living in Toronto, Canada. She teaches women 40+ how to get rid of carb cravings and lose weight for good without eating less and exercising more.

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