A few tips for sugar cravings

Paleo dieting is about eating foods that we were meant to eat. Sugar is one of those foods that we were not meant to eat on a regular basis. The Paleo man probably ate honey when he could find it and had the courage to fight the bees to get it – but that’s about it. Of course, this is old news for most of my readers. As we know, sugar is addictive and raises insulin levels in a manner that we don’t want. Also, as it was documented recently by Mark Sisson here,  when you go from a high carbohydrate diet to a low carbohydrate one, you may feel like you have no energy. This is due to the fact that you are teaching your body how to use dietary fat and stored body fat to fuel your body instead of sugar. Once your body is adapted to the diet change, you will find that you have more energy than before (and no energy crashes).

During the adaptation time, some people experience a lot of sugar cravings. Based on my readings, it seems that this is due to the brain basically asking for a sugar hit. This is logical, because the brain runs on glucose and you lowered your intake of sugar. If you don’t want to ingest massive doses of sugars (which is the goal of this diet anyway), then you will have to find a way to satisfy your cravings. Today’s post will be about my favourite ways of countering sugar cravings. Because there are so many ways to effectively do that, I have decided to post my top 3.

1. Grill a piece of fruit on your BBQ. Slice a fruit of your choice (pears, peaches and apples are good choices). Grill them on your BBQ until they are soft and juicy. Add some cinnamon.  This one is actually a pretty good paleo dessert. The sugar content will be relatively low when you consider the vitamins you will be getting.
2. Drink a homemade low sugar hot chocolate. In a pan, heat a few tablespoons of coconut milk. Add a teaspoon of cacao nibs, a piece (more or less 10-12g) of dark chocolate with a high cacao percentage (70+%). and some water. Stir until it is warm. I find this one to be quite satisfying especially since we know all the benefits of cacao. It is high in antioxidants and provides a lot of minerals (such as magnesium, iron and chromium).
3. Drink a homemade lemonade. Squeeze half a lemon and mix its juice in a tall glass of cold water. I am not sure why it works for me, but it does. I think it might have something to do with the fact that lemon juice is sour, the contrary of sweetness.

Finally, I am curious about the ways my readers satisfy their sugar cravings. Do you try and find a way to satisfy them without consuming sugars ? Do you fall for the first sugary food you find ? Or do you try to ignore that craving by eating something else (meat for example) ?