Food Cravings – Break Free From The Diet Nightmare
Have you ever been struggling to achieve a health goal, be it weight loss, build up muscle tone or beat an allergy only to be regularly derailed by food cravings?
Are you the kind of person that has to cross the road when you see a bakery or chocolate shop? Can you walk through a shopping centre without making a quick stop at the patisserie on the way out?
Food cravings are the surest way to ruin our best health intentions. Cravings for chocolate, cakes and fresh baked bread affect everyone that starts a new health program or diet. Cravings are at their worst in the first ten to fourteen days of a new, healthy lifestyle, but, don’t be surprised to find them resurfacing any time you feel stressed, fatigued or anxious. Food is one of the quickest ways for your body to re-ground itself and your body will instinctively crave foods that through past habits have become associated with a pleasurable experience.
Food cravings do not need to rule our lives and do not need to short circuit plans for optimal wellness. We recommend these simple methods to all our clients to help stop food cravings in their tracks.
Step 1: Be Prepared for Cravings
Don’t let cravings take you by surprise. Before changing your diet take a day or two to identify habitual eating patterns. For example, do you find you:
- always visit the office vending machine in the mid afternoon?
- have a particular food or drink you use to reward or encourage yourself?
- have a special routine to start your day at work that involves food or drink?
These are your clues about when and what form cravings are most likely to take. Make a plan today so that when they strike you are prepared!
Step 2: Eat Protein & Fats Early in the Day
Try to make your first meal of the day high in protein and fat. Research from the University of Alabama has indicated that consumption of a high fat meal early in the morning switched the body from carbohydrate metabolism to fat metabolism. This led to far more effective fat metabolism through out the day than starting the day with the typical western breakfast of toast and cereal.
A meal of good fats and protein also slows the speed at which the stomach empties into the small intestine. This helps you to feel fuller for longer and helps fights snacks during the day.
Breaking the cereal habit can he hard, but try some of these simple choices instead:
- poached eggs and spinach
- grilled haloumi
- smoked salmon on rice cakes.
If all else fails even a protein shake with coconut milk can be a good option for breakfast on the run.
When you obtain your energy requirements through fat metabolism you avoid the spikes and drops in blood sugar. This prevents cravings for high carbohydrate sources such as breads, pastas, sugars, chocolate.
Step 3: Eat Protein Regularly Throughout the Day
Space protein intake across three, evenly spaced meals rather than having one high protein meal per day. The addition of a high quality protein consumed with each meal helps to flatten out the spike in blood sugar levels after eating. Research undertaken in Canada showed that the more easily digestible the protein, the higher these benefits were.
Good sources of easily digestible protein include eggs, lean meats, fish and chicken. For vegans, supplementation with a rice / pea protein supplement may be necessary to ensure sufficient amino acids are available just after eating.
By avoiding a spike in blood sugar levels after food the subsequent low is averted. This helps to stop cravings for quick release energy in the form of sugary snacks and sweets.
Step 4: Regulate Blood Sugar Levels With Magnesium & Chromium
Magnesium and chromium are both often recommended for reduction and control of food cravings. Studies from Tufts University in Boston showed that increasing magnesium intake was associated with a reduction in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. It has been found that magnesium improves the action of the bodies own insulin on our cells. This improves the ability to regulate blood glucose levels and maintain a level balance, in turn preventing the need to reach for the cake or coffee.
Magnesium can be readily obtained through green leafy vegetables, particularly kale, collard greens and bok choy. Increasing these vegetables offers a secondary benefit as the extra fibre consumed acts in the same way as protein to lower the blood sugar spike from the meal. Magnesium supplements are also readily obtainable from most health food stores.
Check out our Magnesium fact sheet here.
Step 5: if All Else Fails Don’t Overlook Diversion
Finally, don’t underestimate the value of diversion. How often have you been told just to think of something else for a while? A recent meta analysis from Flinders University in Australia asked volunteers that were experiencing food cravings to imagine the appearance of a rainbow or the smell of eucalyptus. The results showed that food cravings were reduced which, while not fixing the actual cause of the craving, can keep the cravings at bay while preparing a healthy alternative.
Don’t let food cravings ruin your attempts to achieve optimum health. With extra focus on meal planning to ensure the right mix of proteins, fats and carbohydrates at each meal while maintaining high levels of magnesium these don’t need to rule you life.