The Weekly Sugar Rush - 10 Reasons why you might be having sugar cravings. Reasons 8-10

If you've seen my last two editions of The Sugar Rush you will know that we are on reasons eight to ten for why you might be having sugar cravings.

This week the focus is on all the hidden sugar in our diet.

Reason number 8. You're not eating the right carbs.

Carbohydrates provide the body with the glucose that we need for the mitochondria in the cells to function. We have a glucose from a spectrum of foods. On one end of the scale we have red green and orange foods and on the other end beige and white carbohydrates.

When we consume carbohydrate from the colorful end of the spectrum these carbohydrates release glucose into the bloodstream really slowly. So the release of insulin is really steady. When we consume carbohydrates from the beige and white end of the spectrum, these foods release glucose into the bloodstream really quickly.

A carbohydrate rich breakfast will cause an initial glucose spike to start the day which has a knock on effect to our cravings around 10.30, lunchtime and mid afternoon! In week 1 I talked about why it is important to eat the right breakfast and what that looks like.

Reason number 9. You are consuming too many low calorie fizzy drinks.

Because there's no calories in low calorie fizzy drinks we think we are getting away with being able to consume fizzy drinks without having the calories or the sugar. However as soon as something sweet touches your tongue a message is sent to the brain that something sweet is coming and the pancreas starts to release insulin.

Insulin levels automatically rise and then drop again resulting in another craving for something sweet. So consuming low calorie fizzy drinks, whilst you're not consuming the calories, still has a relationship with insulin. Low calorie fizzy drinks will still cause result in sugar cravings because they push insulin out of balance.

Reason number 10. You are restricting your calories to too much.

We automatically think that in order to lose weight we have to restrict the amount of food that we're eating. However research shows that it's more important to balance your insulin than the amount of calories consumed. Steady insulin will result in less need to snack which means you eat less calories so you become less focused on how much food you're eating and more focused on how much you are nourishing your body.

Focusing on a protein rich breakfast that will keep you full from breakfast to lunchtime, then a colorful protein rich lunch will keep you full from lunch to your evening meal. This means you will reduce the need to snack and actually probably end up eating less calories overall.