A craving for sweets — where it comes from and 5 tips on how to avoid it

Who does not know it — the ravenous hunger for sweets? You pull yourself together all day long and try not to eat too much and as healthy as possible. After all, you want to lose some weight and maybe even define your muscles.

Then in the evening on the sofa, after dinner, you think about the bar of chocolate in your candy drawer. At first only briefly, then more and more often. Suddenly you notice how you really get hungry and your stomach feels empty. You get up and get a piece of chocolate, stuff it in your mouth and sit down again.

Less than two minutes later, you start walking again and take the whole bar of chocolate with you — which you of course also eat completely. While you eat chocolate, you feel great and you are happy. A few minutes later, however, you are plagued by a guilty conscience. Why does this happen? We all know very well that a whole bar of chocolate is unhealthy — we know that too at that moment. But why are we not able to leave these “bad” sweets in the cupboard?

“Would you like a piece of chocolate too?”
“Sweet as you pronounce bar…”

In this article, I will explain three possible causes for your craving for sweets. In addition, you will get the appropriate tips on how to organize your day so that these unpleasant situations do not occur so often and, if they do, how to best deal with them.

• Because you are sick
• Sweet hunger, because your body wants something
• Because your head wants something

Why do you get ravenous appetite for sweets? — Disease

Most unlikely, but possible, is a disease. Diabetes, hyperthyroidism or bulimia can be triggers for such ravenous attacks. If you suspect something like this, please consult a doctor immediately. You will need help from a specialist. A blog article should not and cannot be the solution here. With the following tips, there is more of a risk that you will only make things worse.

Why do you get ravenous appetite for sweets? — Your body is hungry

A ravenous appetite for sweets can also simply have a physiological reason — in other words, your body is hungry. Cravings for sweets are usually accompanied by low blood sugar levels. In this case, your body needs fast energy, which it can quickly transport via the blood to the required places of action such as organs and muscles. Fast energy is short-chain carbohydrates such as sweets. So your body has a big hunger hole and you try to fill it effectively, which is completely normal with regard to your basic instincts.

One thing is now often ignored: Due to evolution, the human body is adjusted to a much lower energy density than is the case today. The times have changed. Instead of picking berries outside and hunting down a mamout, we now order an ice cream after a stressful day at the office. The estimated average energy density of the food from our ancestors from the stone age was about 110kcal/100g. In contrast, chocolate has about 500kcal/100g. Paired with little exercise, regular cravings for sweets are quite problematic — at least that’s what the scales say because every second adult is overweight.

In addition, cravings for sweets can also occur especially after or during a diet, as the body tries to compensate for the calorie loss as quickly as possible. The same can happen to you during long eating breaks or many snacks that do not bring much energy.

Another classic example is the craving for sweets after exercise. During sports activities, you empty your carbohydrate stores, which your body needs to keep you moving all day long. If these are empty after a hard training session, your body understandably wants to refill them as quickly as possible. Again, readily available carbohydrates are at the top of the list of favorite foods.

What is also clearly underestimated by many is the lack of sleep. If your body has had too little sleep, it has not been able to refuel enough energy during your resting phase. It may try to get this energy back by eating more food.

Special conditions with hot hunger for sweets can also grow phases with young people or pregnancy and lactation pure. During the growth of the own body or during pregnancy or breastfeeding the body demands more energy. Growth and the food intake of a baby demand quite a lot from the body. But also here pay attention: the calorie consumption during pregnancy increases exclusively in the last third of the pregnancy — and also here only by 200kcal. That is by the way only a slice of bread with cheese if you leave out the butter.

Tip 1: Drink enough Water
Are you drinking enough? You often confuse thirst with hunger. Take your body weight, cut it in half and divide it by 10. You should drink as many liters of unsweetened fluid per day as possible. So if you weigh 70kg, you should drink 3.5 liters of fluid a day. Water (also with lemon, lime, ginger or mint), tea and a 4:1 mixed juice spritzer are well suited to reach your daily requirement.

Tip 2: Leave out the sugar substitutes
Many light or dietary products contain sweeteners and other sugar substitutes. Many of these substances make your body believe that it is getting sugar that is not really there. This makes it possible for you to get hungry again very quickly. If you can’t resist your craving for sweets, the calories you just saved will be quickly recouped. There are better ways for you to replace sugar in a healthier way.

Here I can really speak from experience. For months, I’ve been treating myself to something sweet after every lunch. Sometimes sweetened fruit yoghurt, a latte macchiato or even an ice cream. That, of course, together with lunch, already covers a good part of my daily needs. I wanted to change that and decided to take a Diet Coke from the vending machine after every lunch. After about 1–2 hours I was always hungry and ate my afternoon snack. Sometimes a protein bar, with pleasure also fruit or oatmeal. I also did that for months. The tip of the iceberg was in our Tenerife vacation. I drank almost the whole day only diet soda.

I decided not to have any light drinks after the vacation. From 100 to 0. It worked until today. And now I simply leave out my afternoon snack most of the working days. Not because I want to and am disciplined, but because I simply don’t need it. If you are a sugar substitute junkie, you should try this. Yes, the first few days are pretty exhausting and require a lot of discipline, but after all, diet cola is not always available. “In the past” people got along without such things.

Tip 3: Distribute your food intake evenly
Only 40% of people eat breakfast regularly and thus increase their risk of becoming overweight threefold. If you deprive your body of too much energy during the day, it will get it back in the evening by a craving for sweets. Your calorie savings throughout the day can even have a negative effect. If you save about 400kcal in the morning for breakfast and 500kcal in the evening for the chocolate bar, you have gained nothing and feel bad.

Tip 4: Avoid short-chain carbohydrates
Short-chain carbohydrates, for example in sweets, cause your blood sugar level to rise rapidly. A lot of insulin has to be produced to quickly break down the blood sugar and transport it to the places where it is needed. Usually, the body produces more insulin than it actually needs and lowers your blood sugar level too much. After a short time you are hungry again. Just like you learned earlier about quickly available energy — a ravenous appetite for sweets. For this reason, try to eat foods that slowly raise your blood sugar level. Long-chain carbohydrates such as wholemeal bread, rice or potatoes. Protein-rich foods are also important and suitable.

Tip 5: Always have something to eat with you
If you notice that hunger is approaching, you should be able to do something about it immediately. Always have something to eat with you. To bridge the gap I always have a protein bar with me, if not at least one Rossmann is around. You can leave it in your pocket for several days without anything going bad or bumming around. Protein bars are high in protein and do not raise the blood sugar level steeply. Protein bars are available in all flavors and variations. But before you decide on a particular variety, take a close look at the nutritional values. Some protein bars have similar values to a chocolate bar. Here you have neither the desired effect nor even less money in your wallet.

Why do you get a ravenous appetite for sweets? — Your head is hungry
It is a primal instinct, the appetite for sweets. In former times, in the stone age, there was nothing that was sweet and poisonous. Even with children, this basic instinct can still be admired today. In general, children’s first food is sweet mother’s milk. If the child then eats something sour or bitter as he or she grows older, his or her face is distorted and not eaten. This would probably happen very rarely with a piece of chocolate. This basic instinct is then supported by some parents with some additional parenting techniques: “First you eat up and then you get the fruit dwarf” or “When you have tidied up your room, you may choose a candy”. So the reward is sweets.

This lays the mental foundation that sweets are a good thing. In addition to this, one’s own body also rewards the consumption of sweets. Larger amounts of sugar have a similar effect in the body as the drug heroin — the happiness hormone dopamine is released. Dopamine makes us feel happy, joyful and content. And who doesn’t want to be happy and satisfied as often as possible?

Stress, on the other hand, hinders the production of dopamine. So anyone who has had a stressful day has produced little dopamine — you can compensate for this by consuming sweets. Win-win situation? Hardly, if you consider the influence sugar has on our body.

Very important and not to forget is that humans are creatures of habit. We are lazy by nature. Here we are back to our basic instincts. In the past, people had little to eat and moved around a lot. There were no cars, trains or bicycles. Everything had to be done on foot. Since there was not much to eat, the Stone Age people had to pace themselves and move only when it was really necessary. Today, you do not have to move much and there is enough food available. That’s why there is usually lunch right on the spot. Do you know the Pavlovian experiment?

It is the same with our food. Your body knows that lunch is served at 12 noon. Your stomach feels empty and you get hungry. And I tell you, it is indeed so. At my work we usually have lunch at 12:00. Because of my studies I often had to go to the university for a week for the attendance phase. Guess who was sitting in the lecture hall at noon in a damn bad mood because lunch was not taken until 1pm. Particularly a professor I particularly took to my heart — he decided at 12.45h that we only make lunch at 14h. 😉

What I would like to say with it is the following: If you have gotten into the habit of giving in to your ravenous appetite for sweets with chocolate or other delicacies on the sofa in the evening, your body will continue to want it — precisely because the body is still in the habit. If there is something to eat, then your body wants you to eat it, too. Best of all without much exercise, because that consumes valuable energy.