Welcome to Running: A FEVER. My name is Michael Davis. My goal is to live a long, healthy, happy, active life right up to the very end. If that sounds good to you, you’re in the right place.
Sometimes, it seems like I have to have dessert with every meal. I immediately want something sweet after I finish my main course. I wonder if it’s a habit, but it seems to happen even when I haven’t done it in a while. It seems to be just a part of eating. Now, if I’m able to wait a little while, the craving usually passes. We’ve all heard that it takes a long time for the stomach to tell our brains that it is satisfied.
Registered dietitian and nutritionist Natalie Butler has identified four reasons for this post-meal craving for sugary treats. Let’s take a look at them.
First, let’s examine how this works in the body. Sugar is an addictive substance because it activates the reward centers of the brain, releasing opioids and dopamine, which give us pleasure and train us to want it again and again. This is a “lizard brain” function, one that has been a part of our nature since the beginning of human existence. It helps us survive by making us choose sweet over bitter, which in the wild could mean safe versus dangerous. The good news is that these cravings are usually temporary. Now, let’s examine some of the reasons in more detail.
1. It’s a habit.
We’re programmed to work on autopilot as much as possible to prevent unnecessary effort. The part of the brain responsible for handling decisions and complex thoughts is the prefrontal cortex. The part of the brain that handles habits is the basal ganglia. When we get tired and our cerebral cortex has been working all day, the basal ganglia takes over to give the brain a break. This could lead to taking advantage of the donuts people always bring to work, the cake on birthday days, or all the sweets that somehow appear at the workplace. It also may lead to stopping off to pick up a Butterfinger and a Coke on the way home.
How does one break a habit? It’s certainly not easy. One thing I just learned about it Charles Duhigg’s Habit Loop. The three components of a habit are cue, routine, and reward. An example of a cue is the end of a meal, a particular time of day, or sitting down to rest after work. The routine is eating. The reward could be that dopamine hit or feeling relaxed and de-stressed from your day. Dugigg says you should only make changes while keeping the cue and reward the same and just changing the routine to something more healthy, like exercising, having a cup of tea, or, my favorite, reading a good book. Once you do this, it is only a matter of time before that habit gets lodged securely in your basal ganglia.
2. You don’t eat enough.
The hormone ghrelin signals the brain that you haven’t had enough to eat. And the satiety hormone, leptin, lets you know when you have had enough. If you still have that hunger after a meal, sweets, and high-calorie foods become more tempting, and according to an article in the Nutrition Journal, this happens especially if you are already overweight or obese.
How can you stop this from happening? Try eating dinner later. If you go to bed at 11 pm and have been eating at 5 pm, consider moving dinner back to 7 pm so you don’t feel as hungry before going to bed. Add bulk to your dinner by eating high-fiber foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. Eating more protein also increases satiety. And finally, you can add calories to your meal by eating more of the above or using more oil during meal preparation.
3. You eat too fast.
If your meals last only a few minutes, you’ve reduced the amount of pleasure you get from eating it. It will make you more hungry than if you’d taken thirty minutes to eat. Most of our taste actually comes from our sense of smell, and when we eat quickly, we’re not taking enough time to inhale all the aromas. This reduces the pleasure we derive from a meal, which can lead us to seek pleasure in sweets afterward.
How to stop? Time is your friend. Pace yourself. Plan to be only half done in ten minutes. Put your fork down after every bite. Chew each bit more times. Also, simply take a beat before digging into the sweets. Most cravings last only a few minutes, so if you can survive that, it becomes much easier to resist the urge to eat the sweet food.
4. You’re eating too many quick-absorbing carbs.
Simple carbs and those with a high glycemic index digest more quickly, which can cause a rapid spike in blood sugar. This causes the pancreas to release insulin, resulting in a sudden drop in blood sugar. Simple carbs include foods with white flour, pastry, candy, juice, and soda. Blood sugar spikes and crashes can make you feel weak, shaky, nauseous, or fatigued. People with diabetes or people who are pre-diabetic are more susceptible to this. The result is that you seek something to make you feel better in that moment, e.g., sweet foods.
How to stop? Be sure you’re getting enough fiber, 25 grams per day for women and 38 grams for men. Eat complex carbohydrates instead of simple carbohydrates. Complex carbs include beans, whole grains, and vegetables. These are more slowly digested. Avoid eating an all-carb diet. Be sure always to include some fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Also, make sure you’re not eating too much carbohydrate. Half a cup to one cup is usually enough. You can also substitute alternatives to regular sugar, such as erythritol, stevia, or fresh or frozen fruit. Lowering your intake of refined sugar helps prevent wild blood sugar swings.
It’s also possible that you are genetically predisposed to craving sweets. However, even so, these tips can still be helpful. If you’re emotionally craving sweets, ask yourself what you’re really looking for. Is it that comforting feeling of home? Is it to remember your grandparents? Is it to reward yourself for hard work or to celebrate an accomplishment? Try to find other ways to induce a dopamine surge, such as exercise, enjoying nature, making love with your spouse, showing gratitude, or engaging in different forms of self-care.
Regardless of why you crave sweets after meals, it’s essential to consider your health before indulging. Obesity is a serious disease, and a lack of moderation can send you there in a hurry.
I hope you’ve gained some insight today about why those sweet cravings occur and enjoyed the tips on how to deal with them. Until next time, if you’ve got the fever, keep it burning, and if you don’t, catch the fever. And I will see you next time on Running: A FEVER.
References:
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/why-you-crave-sweets-after-a-meal
https://charlesduhigg.com/how-habits-work/
https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12937-018-0427-x
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/erythritol#dental-health
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2147592/