Are sugar cravings getting in the way of your health goals? Sugar can be one of the most addictive and inflammatory ingredients around! So, can you break your sugar habit? You betcha! Here’s how;

✅ Stop cold turkey! There is no sense in weaning down — that will make it more difficult. I highly recommend a complete elimination of all added sugars and substituting with natural options (and yes. you many go through a few uncomfortable days until your blood sugars stabilize). Keep chewable vitamin C and frozen berries on hand to help.

✅ Eat protein at every meal. Protein will help you stabilize the up and down swings of cravings you are experiencing and act as the great stabilizer for blood sugars.

✅ For sweet options, turn to fruit (berries and apples are best), dates, sweets spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg and sweet herbal teas (i.e. Bengal spiced tea). You can also swap out sugar in your baking and opt for small amounts of maple syrup or honey.

✅ Hydrate. When you are properly hydrated, your cravings will tend to be less. I use electrolytes (the pink lemonade or raspberry flavour) from Organika Health daily (use discount code Joey25). Electrolytes are naturally sweetened and help with my sweet tooth.

✅ Typically natural sugars occur in small doses.. Natural sugars do not have a negative impact on health. It is the added sugars that are the issue. To determine if added sugars are in a product, check the ingredient list for words such as glucose, fructose, honey, invert sugar, dextrose, rice syrup, corn sweetener, brown sugar, high fructose corn syrup, lactose, maltose, sucrose, evaporated cane juice and beet sugar. The higher up on the ingredient list they appear, the more sugar is in the product.

✅ Avoid artificial sweeteners. They do not help with sugar cravings and have a negative effect on weight and nervous system function.

✅ To get a sense of how much sugar is in an item, check flavoured items (i.e. flavoured yogurt) to plain yogurt. Keep in mind 1 teaspoon of sugar = 4 grams. Thus, if a yogurt has 16 grams of sugar per serving, that is close to 4 teaspoons of sugar!

Remember – you are sweet enough already – you don’t need sugar!

If you would like to kick start your health and boost your metabolism, book in for a free health assessment at drjoey.com. You can also check out my new online Menopause Makeover Program -helping thousands of women thrive and lose weight with age. You deserve to feel your best.