How to stop craving sweets. Bad habits come back quickly. Reduce your sugar intake gradually

First of all, it is necessary to provide some clarity on what I mean by “eliminating sugar from your diet.” Of course, it is impossible to completely give up all sweets: sugar is included in so many products that it would be necessary to invent special diet, which I suspect wouldn't be very healthy.

But try to follow the recommendations WHO urges countries to reduce sugar intake in adults and children WHO, which calls for limiting sugar consumption in such a way that you get no more than 5% of your total sugar intake from it. total number calories per day is quite possible. To do this, just stop consuming sugar in drinks, give up soda and limit the amount of confectionery. And this is what will happen to you when you do this.

1. You will become healthier and more energetic

Many people know that sugar is a source of glucose, which the body needs to replenish energy. When blood sugar levels are low, a person feels tired, sluggish, and may even lose consciousness. But no less dangerous high level sugar in human blood, which is observed in almost all sweet tooths. This may cause serious violations.

2. Your weight will stabilize

Immediately after you limit your intake of sweets, you will begin to lose weight. And the point here is not only that sugar is a source of calories in itself. It’s just that it is most often included in high-calorie dishes: baked goods, confectionery, fast food, dairy desserts, and so on. By limiting their consumption, you will easily and naturally get rid of extra pounds.

3. Your intestines will work normally

While your brain is enjoying another sweet cake, you have to take the rap for everything gastrointestinal tract. After all, the breakdown of sugar occurs precisely in the intestines, and its excess disrupts the functioning of the enzymes of the stomach, intestines and pancreas. When giving up sweets and replacing them with foods that have increased content fiber, you will be surprised to find that your intestines begin to work literally like a Swiss watch.

4. You will stop constantly wanting to eat “something sweet”

The mechanism of functioning is no different from a narcotic drug. You eat a candy - your brain enjoys it - you reach for the next one. And so on until there is something sweet within your reach. The positive news is that it is still possible to break this cycle. As soon as you change your diet, notice that you want sweets less and less, and very soon you will look in surprise at all these strange people around who absorb mountains of sweets.

5. You will learn the real taste of products

Do you carefully select an exquisite type of tea and then add a few spoons of sugar to your cup? Do you consider yourself a coffee connoisseur, but can't drink it without something sweet? If you answer affirmatively to these and similar questions, then I hasten to inform you that, unfortunately, you do not know the real taste of these wonderful drinks. Like many other products, which for some reason are usually flavored with a fair amount of sugar. Yes, the first time may be unusual, but only two weeks will pass, no more, and you will remember your past “sweet” life like a terrible dream.

Have you tried giving up sugar? And how did it happen?

No matter how tired we are of our grandmothers' memories of better times their youth, but there is something to envy there. At a minimum, they did not know about diets, gluten, fitness parade, calorie counting and fasting days x on kefir and grapefruit.

Our life is full of restrictions, phrases with “impossible”, “only up to...”, “without...”, “except...”, “no more...”. We live by the rules of slogans without even thinking about why. Everyone says that this is how it should be - that means it should be so. Yes?

I lived a carefree, cheerful and interesting life until, in some incomprehensible way, the diet entered it and began to rule my brain. Starting with the well-known Dukan diet, maple syrup, kefir with buckwheat and ending with the programs of various nutritionists, fasting days, fasting and detoxes - in an instant my life began to revolve around food.

So, I clearly understood that sugar is evil, carbohydrates are only before lunch and only complex ones, proteins need to be worshiped and idolized, but with fats it’s not clear at all - they were first banned, and then allowed again and even called essential.

Why did you have to dislike sugar so much? Let's start with the fact that all adherents of healthy lifestyle and PP watched the film “Sugar” and swear that it was after watching it that they threw out all products with sugar from the house and stopped eating it altogether. After all, it is sugar that destroys teeth, contributes to the accumulation of fat, the appearance of cellulite, and in general, frequent use sugar can lead to the development of type 2 diabetes and almost to infertility.

A few years ago I was in the baking business, making and selling cheesecakes, muffins and cookies. Everything was delicious and, of course, with sugar. I participated in all kinds of fairs and festivals, where my sensational cupcake was bought up by festival participants even before the official opening, and raspberry cheesecake sometimes replaced gifts for friends’ birthdays at their request.

Everything would be fine, but I absolutely couldn’t eat my own baked goods because of that same sugar. At that time, one famous nutritionist gave me terrible diagnosis– insulin resistance (the inability of glucose to enter the blood), which over time leads to obesity and type 2 diabetes. With this diagnosis, a low-carbohydrate diet is prescribed and the consumption of not only sweets, but also fruits and even vegetables containing a large number of sugar (for example, my favorite bananas cannot be eaten).

I am 24 years old and it seems like life is just beginning, but it turned out that it has already ended with this terrible diagnosis.

However, we know very well how prohibitions work in our brain. After all, the forbidden fruit is the sweetest. Therefore, in the evenings and alone with myself, I ate the remains of my baked goods, as well as store-bought cookies and chocolate bars. And it’s understandable that afterwards she reproached and scolded herself for what she had eaten. During the day, I was an exemplary girl who ate “proper” food by the hour, drank water half an hour before meals and never drank. At night I swept away all the sweets in my path.

Time passed, and my weight rapidly increased. The nutritionist threw up her hands, and I said with an innocent look that sometimes I violated and lashed out at sweets, but “just a little.” I kept a food diary, but I never wrote down the exact portion of breakdowns.

Sugar lives in everything. And most of it is absorbed most quickly from liquid. Therefore, no sugar in tea, no juices, lemonades, cappuccino. Forget about cocktails and alcohol altogether.

Well, you also heard about milk sugar and the fact that milk combined with coffee is not digestible, right?

Then I constantly asked myself the same questions: “Why does all this food exist if no one can eat it in principle? Who is it for? and “How can these skinny girls at the next tables in the restaurant eat desserts and pizza?” I didn't find any answers. But I didn’t want to put up with such constant restrictions.

Somewhere deep in my soul I believed that there was some other world without a million restrictions, but this belief became less and less every day, and the prospect of diabetes loomed more and more before my eyes.

I honestly tried to love dark chocolate in those happy days when I was allowed to eat two or three squares. I even learned how to make cookies with stevia, but it was still bitter. And the dark chocolate remained the same bitter and did not replace my favorite milk milk.

Unfortunately, all the food experiments and restrictions brought me to the point of no return. The food stopped bringing pleasure and became tasteless (of course, I ate, plus or minus, the same thing). Weighing in became a huge stress for me. I tried to avoid birthdays and other feasts as much as possible, or, if possible, I went with my own bowls, said that I ate at home, and looked accusingly at those chewing fried chicken legs, mashed potatoes, salads with mayonnaise and cakes with pastries.

At some point, I realized that I couldn’t limit myself anymore and didn’t want to, but I didn’t know what I could eat, and I agreed to another three-month weight loss challenge, in which I could eat a piece of bread or crispbread for lunch and there were cheat days -milov (when one meal can be replaced with your favorite dish). For the first couple of weeks, I still continued to check with the nutritionist whether I could really eat bread, and then I started eating one piece of bread for lunch and somehow even lost weight.

In three months, I managed to lose 10 kg, once again begin to hate sugar, but not stop lashing out at it. I failed to become happy. I remember the final photo shoot and my post with the result, which received many enthusiastic comments and about three hundred likes. But I felt terrible about it. Because again there are these restrictions, sugar is sugar everywhere and it’s not at all clear what you can eat and what you can’t.

A couple of months have passed. +10 kg, hello again! Oh, and a couple more! Armageddon was raging in my head, and thoughts and questions about food and food increased, preventing me from living peacefully and enjoying what was happening. Added to the apathy in food choice Bad mood, depression, reluctance to be photographed, or to go anywhere at all, because “I’m fat and everyone can see it!” and “I can’t have sugar.” Well, there is nothing worse for a girl when you no longer fit into your favorite dress.

In short, life is pain, but still I survived the winter and spring has finally come. And then I see another nutritionist preaching almost permissiveness and attention: SUGAR! I think that another divorce cannot happen. But I’ve already gone through almost everything and adventure is my middle name. I'm joking, of course, but trying is not torture. I go to this nutritionist with all my history and experience of several years and look at her with a languid look, saying, “What else can you tell me? what will surprise you?

It’s unusual, but she said that you can eat anything. She even argued her thoughts from the point of view of anatomy and scientific research. I also read studies that, by the way, say that carbohydrates can be eaten not only after 12, but throughout the day and generally regardless of the time of day. But how is it that I didn’t get to the bottom of it before, but believed in simple words without verifiable evidence?

Our body is quite smart and its signals should never be ignored. The body certainly does not strive to destroy itself. The simplest thing, it would seem, is to listen to your body. But, unfortunately, many of us, in the flow of constant information and advice, have stopped hearing ourselves altogether.

The main advice that the nutritionist gave me is to hear yourself, ask yourself questions and respond to the true desires of the body. So when I think I want cake, ice cream, or fries, I ask myself, “Do I really want this? Or perhaps I want to eat away anxiety and sadness? Is it food I want?” And if my brain says yes, I eat. But! I don't swallow huge quantities food, but I enjoy every bite and feel when I’m full. Even if at first it is very difficult and unusual, but after a few months it becomes a habit and I don’t have to guess for a long time what I want.

Sugar is one of our main sources of energy - in the body it breaks down into glycogen. We store about 350g of muscle glycogen, 90g in the liver and about 5g circulating in our blood. We replenish it when we eat. Primarily from carbohydrates (not just sugars), so grains, potatoes, vegetables, pasta and rice among other sources help provide good condition body. Sugar is now simply classified as a carbohydrate, but we have stopped mentioning it as a source of strength, completely ignoring it as a way of producing energy. We only talk about its harm, forgetting about the benefits.

American nutritionist Rhonda Alexander explains the processes in the human body in the absence of sufficient sugar: “When our cells don’t have enough glucose to do their job, they find alternative ways to get your energy, especially through lipolysis (the breakdown of fat) and gluconeogenesis (the creation of new sugar from our own fabric body).

These processes require the release of adrenaline and cortisol - our "fight or flight" hormonal reactions. This is why many people experience feelings of clarity, easy weight loss, and boundless energy when they turn to a low-carb or sugar-free diet. Their bodies thrive on adrenaline and cortisol. And although these positive effects may last many months or longer, ultimately the body is not designed to live on stress hormones alone.”

So about sugar. Life got better, acquired colors, and food became tasty and began to bring pleasure when I allowed myself to eat everything. Yes, yes, you heard it wrong. At first, I thought that now I would allow myself everything and eat a bar of chocolate, or even two, at once. But for some reason this did not happen.

I have always considered myself a terrible sweet tooth who would never give up sweets. But now I’m no longer surprised when I don’t feel like dessert or don’t buy myself a chocolate bar or my favorite German marzipan. I can - but I don’t want to. But I don’t want to precisely because it’s possible.

I didn’t stop eating sweets, I started. Only consciously, less and forgetting the last time I ate it. So all these “30 days without sweets” don’t bother me at all, but I always want to ask the participants: why? After all, the body actually needs sugar for normal functioning and health, and even more so for girls. That's not the whole point terrible word, but in quantity and attitude towards food as such.

I’ll say right away that everything is fine with insulin and glucose. The other day I just donated blood. And the weight, although not so important, those 10 kg are almost gone. Without restrictions, with delicious food and even sugar.

Now I ask the waiters to bring sugar, I order lemonades with syrup and I have neither swelling nor excess weight, no feelings of guilt.

Who doesn't love sweets? No, of course, such people exist, but there are only a few of them. And for most of us it is very difficult to refuse a delicious cake or delicious chocolate candy. But sugar is additional calories, which will inevitably turn into extra centimeters and kilograms.

The key to losing weight is giving up flour and sweets. At least partial. and even better - full. And there are two ways. The first is to put the cookie aside right now and never touch it again. confectionery products. But in this case there is a high risk of an early breakdown. The second option is to set yourself up correctly so that you simply don’t want sweets.

We don’t need breakdowns and wasted nerves, so we’ll choose the second, gentler option. So, the topic of today’s article is how to give up sweets forever, so that it doesn’t cause excruciating pain.

Both sweet and starchy foods are primarily carbohydrates, which are the main sources of energy in the human body. With light daily activity - walking, cleaning around the house, mental activity– carbohydrates are broken down and release energy, which we use for movement.

In addition, the physiological desire to gobble up something high-calorie and tasty can arise when you are tired or stressed. Simple carbohydrates, which are contained in sweets, help to quickly satisfy hunger, raise blood sugar levels, increase overall tone and, of course, improve mood. In addition, addiction to sweets may indicate that the body lacks certain hormones, such as endorphins or serotonin.

As follows from all of the above, it is impossible to completely exclude carbohydrates from the diet. But limit their consumption, especially if you have problems with overweight, definitely necessary. Let's figure out how to do this correctly.

How to give up sweets and starchy foods: psychology is the best assistant

And indeed it is. No miracle pill will help as much as the right attitude. Any drugs work only at the moment when you take them, while psychological techniques, if used wisely, will always work for you.

But how to adjust your psychology to stop eating sweets? We present to your attention the TOP 5 psychological techniques, which definitely need to be “implemented” into life.

Rule one: don't feel sorry for yourself

Don’t let this rule seem strange to you - nothing will work without it. Either you won’t be able to say “no” to sugar at all, or giving up sweets and flour will not bring results. Because the most important thing that determines the success of any endeavor is desire.

Therefore, you should not consider yourself the main martyr in the history of mankind. Refusal of flour and sweets is solely your own, adult and balanced decision, made in your personal interests. Make a choice, take responsibility, don’t look for someone to blame for the fact that you need to reduce your consumption of sweets. And you will see, it will be much easier for the body to get rid of this bad habit.

Rule two: do everything gradually

We have already talked about this above. Of course, you can say to yourself a firm “No!”, immediately putting the candy aside, but how long will it last? So remember: no rush! Otherwise, you risk going into deep depression, creating additional stress for yourself and hating the whole world. Do you need it?

How to gradually reduce your sugar intake? Very simple. For example, on the first day of your new life, “remove” the sugar from two cups of coffee, eat two instead of three candies, and four instead of five cookies. And this should be done every subsequent day - reduce the amount of harmful substances per serving. According to reviews, giving up sweets and starchy foods in this mode should last about five days. By the end of the first week, the body will get used to it and stop demanding buns and cakes. Do the same with bread - instead of white, take rye, then bread with bran, and then eliminate it from the diet completely.

Couldn't you completely give up sweets? At least try to replace harmful products for healthy ones: milk chocolate for bittersweet, cakes for marshmallows, ice cream for fruit ice.

Rule three: get distracted

“I can’t give up sweets, what should I do?” - you ask. The answer is: do other things! Find some interesting hobby and devote everything to it free time. Remember - what have you wanted to do for a long time, but always had no time? So now is the time!

Rule four: tasty treats - for seven castles

Another current advice How to stop eating sweets and starchy foods - make sure that tasty but unhealthy foods don’t become an eyesore. Do not put sweets and cookies on the table, distribute food in the refrigerator so that the sweets are not at eye level - and you will see that it will be much easier to resist temptations.

Rule five: proper diet is everything

How to give up sweets to lose weight? First of all, make up proper diet. Every second article on losing weight talks about how to do this on the Internet. Therefore, we will repeat only the most basic points:

Instead of sweets - fruits and vegetables in any quantity.
Ketchups, store-bought canned goods and other products that contain “hidden” sugar should be completely avoided.
You can eat nuts, honey, dried fruits - for example, dried apricots, dates, prunes. But don't get too carried away!
You need to consume a lot of protein foods - lean meat and fish, eggs, dairy products.
Drink about two liters of water a day - required condition, if you decide to give up flour and sweets.
It wouldn't hurt to take vitamins. Which ones exactly - check with your doctor.

A great tip on how to stop eating sweets is to replace cheap sweets with expensive ones. Firstly, you won't be able to buy unhealthy products from large quantities. Secondly, expensive sweets are more natural. And thirdly, elite chocolate or imported cookies are really very tasty.

If you are looking for a way to give up sweets and starchy foods forever, start cooking yourself. There are millions on the Internet dietary recipes cakes that taste qualities They are not inferior to store-bought ones, but at the same time they contain several times less calories. It's simple: slimming housewives replace sugar with dates, fruit puree, as well as spices - nutmeg or cinnamon.

Also a lot useful tips You can find out how to force yourself not to eat sweets in the presented video:

Have you tried giving up sweets and did it work? Share own experience in comments!

You can’t calmly walk past the display case with chocolates, cakes, pastries and other sweets in a store? But a large amount of sweets eaten causes excess weight, diabetes and even cancer. Try to overcome your passion for sweets, and you will become a completely different person.

How to stop eating sweets - getting rid of addiction step by step

Remember that sweets are a kind of drug and get rid of this addiction gradually. First, limit the consumption of such foods - instead of three chocolates a day, eat one. Please note the following rules:

limit yourself in time. Don't eat sweets after four o'clock in the afternoon. Gradually shift the time to lunch and the last intake of sweet foods - no later than two o'clock in the afternoon;
start monitoring the quality of “goodies”. Switch to sweets with lower glycemic index. Instead of baking, eat a bar of dark dark chocolate and gradually switch to dried fruits, nuts and homemade jam;
try to cook at home and avoid buying sweet pies and pastries for snacking at lunchtime. Bring homemade food to the office for lunch and heat it in the microwave;
Don't go to candy stores. Train your willpower and don’t buy anything there. It’s easier to give up buying candy at the store than to eat all the cookies on the shelf in the kitchen cabinet;
First, replace cheap sweets with expensive ones. You will see that the cost of dessert will begin to hold you back and you will not buy many cookies or candies.

How to stop eating sweets - switch to healthy foods

Delicious fruits are also sweet, but they are also healthy. They have a lot of fiber, vitamins and microelements. Buy an apple, orange or grapefruit instead of chocolate. Don't forget about vegetables - crunch on fresh red peppers, eat a juicy tomato. Nuts and dried fruits will relieve you of the desire to eat chocolate. But don't overdo it with nuts, they are also high in calories.

Useful tips for choosing products to replace sweets:

buy diabetic desserts. Every supermarket has shelves with products for diabetics. In these desserts, fructose replaces sugar. But don't overdo it;
replace sweets with protein. Buy protein with chocolate. Prepare a drink - dissolve in milk;
give preference to products that support normal level glucose. These are buckwheat, durum pasta, mushrooms, eggs, cheese, milk. These products will replace your favorite cakes, because they contain tryptophan, which makes people happy. Don’t skip breakfast, eat heartily in the morning and you won’t want to snack during the day;
use honey instead of sweets and cakes;
learn to drink tea and coffee without sugar;
Avoid sugar whenever possible. For example, stop drinking unhealthy soda.

Divide daily ration for 5-6 meals. Eat little and often.

How to stop eating sweets - find something else to do

Play sports! Sports will distract you from gluttony and help you lose excess weight. You won't want to go back to sweets when your figure becomes beautiful. Physical exercise also stimulate the production of happiness hormones. AND good mood will come without gingerbread!

Find yourself a hobby - embroider, read, walk the dog, go to the beach in the summer. Start doing what you love every time you want to eat candy. Doing something you love will relieve your cravings for sweets.

How to stop eating sweets - get rid of stress

Many people use sweets to combat depression and obsessive thoughts. Suggestion plays a big role here - you ate the candy and calmed down. Make no mistake, gingerbread cookies do not relieve stress. Exit from vicious circle Favorite activities and switching thoughts from sweets to something else will help. Try to get rid of stressful situations and shoot nervous tension walks on fresh air And herbal teas sugarless.

Sweet cravings - bad habit like smoking. Try to eradicate it and you will see that a good mood will appear even without sweets and cakes, and your health will become much better.

If it doesn't work: spend the day on chocolate

Natural yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, kefir, boiled egg/ omelette, lean meat, fish, nuts - nutritionists advise eating something protein first when you want something sweet. Protein-rich foods help stabilize blood sugar levels, and “sweet” hunger subsides within 15-20 minutes.

If this method doesn't work, try another: To overcome excessive cravings for candy, spend one day eating only chocolate. For example, nutritionist Margarita Koroleva prescribes 2-3 fasting days on chocolate for her clients with a sweet tooth.

Action plan: choose one with at least 75-80% cocoa content. Divide 150 g of chocolate into slices and eat only them throughout the day, dissolving them on your tongue. Only 6 appointments until 8 pm. You can drink tea and water without restrictions.

In addition to chocolate, a day of pineapple (cut 1.2 kg of pulp into cubes and eat in 6 doses before 8 pm), melon, fruit jellies. After such a “unloading”, it will be easier for you to endure restrictions or even completely give up sweets for some period of time.

If it doesn't work: have a sweet afternoon tea

Eating a cake or a piece of cake immediately after a heavy lunch does not cause sharp jump blood sugar. You satisfy your need for sweets and at the same time do not lose your sense of proportion. If your lunch is only a piece of cake, the desire to eat another piece may overtake you within half an hour.

The advice is very true, but it doesn’t suit everyone: sometimes you just don’t want something sweet after dinner, but in the evening you can’t stop yourself. Swiss nutritionist Patrick Leconte offers another solution. He analyzed daily activity hundreds of hormones and enzymes and came to the conclusion that the most harmonious time from the point of view of our biorhythms is from 17.00 to 18.30.

At this time, Leconte recommends eating a choice: one small cake, a piece of cake, fruit sorbet, ice cream (80 g), dark chocolate (30 g) or baked apple with honey or maple syrup. This sweet afternoon snack will reduce your overall craving for sweets.

If it doesn't work: hold the treat in your mouth and spit it out.

Brushing your teeth when you have a craving for something sweet helps switch your taste buds. The taste in the mouth changes and the desire weakens. But no matter how much I tried this technique, it didn’t work. But Karl Lagerfeld’s advice helped me: hold it in your mouth favorite treat and spit it out. The designer did this with Coca-Cola when he was losing weight under the supervision of the famous French doctor Jean-Claude Udret. In just over a year, 64-year-old Lagerfeld lost 42 kg.

If it doesn't work: eat sweets in tiny portions 3-4 times a week

Frequent advice from nutritionists: don’t eliminate your favorite foods completely. Once a week it is quite possible to indulge in a large portion of tiramisu, several cakes with cream, etc. But this reward must be earned - for the remaining six days, forget about delicacies.

Not everyone has such willpower. Run away from temptation - bad way deal with it. This is what one of the most famous specialists in the treatment of addictions (overeating, smoking) thinks.

If you have a sweet tooth, use this feature to find your individual eating style. In my opinion, the instructor of programs on the TV channel “LIVE!” is acting very wisely. She eats sweets 3-4 times a week, but in mini portions.

Usually Inna chooses nectarine / a handful of sweet berries, several dried fruits, a slice of homemade apple pie, two small cookies, 1-2 tablespoons of condensed milk.

Perhaps this or other of the above techniques will suit you more than the classic advice of nutritionists, and will help you not go beyond the bounds of reason with tasty, but unhealthful food.