If you want to eliminate food cravings and nip overeating in the bud, the first key is to maintain stable blood sugar. Blood sugar is, literally, the level of the sugar glucose in your blood at any given time. Your body, and especially your brain, needs a reasonably high level of blood sugar to function. The amount of glucose in your blood naturally goes up and down through the day, and your appetite tends to follow suit. When your blood glucose levels are stable, you feel full. When your blood glucose falls, you get hungry (not to mention tired and irritable!). A drop in blood sugar makes your body think that it is starving, and your brain quickly releases chemicals that trigger your appetite. When blood sugar levels fall a long way very quickly, your brain releases massive amounts of these chemicals, which generally leads to serious overeating. Stable blood sugar leads to a controlled appetite and plenty of energy, and is easily achieved with these simple principles and action steps:

Controlling Appetite and Cravings Principles

1. Avoid Sugar and White Flour, and Choose “Low Glycemic” Carbs

Sugar and white flour are pretty much the worst things you can eat when it comes to keeping your appetite under control. Sugar and white bread are so called “high glycemic” carbs, which means that the calories in these foods are converted very rapidly to blood sugar. White bread, candy, and baked goods are the most common sources of hi glycemic carbs in most people’s diets. As soon as you eat a hi glycemic food your blood sugar levels soar. High blood sugar actually damages your body. This is why people with advanced diabetes, in which blood sugar levels are constantly elevated, develop kidney disease, go blind, and experience a variety of other problems. To prevent this damage, your body mobilizes a hormone called insulin which clears sugar from your blood. Unfortunately, your body invariably overshoots, releasing too much insulin. As a result, your blood sugar levels fall too far. This drop in blood sugar then powerfully stimulates your appetite. At this point, most people reach for more sugar or white flour, setting up a vicious cycle in which they are constantly hungry in spite of consuming more than enough calories. Given that insulin is also the hormone that tells your fat cells to store sugar as fat, the consequence of this pattern is that you feel like you’re starving all of the time even as you are overeating and gaining weight.

Breaking this cycle requires stabilizing your blood sugar. When you do this, it will eliminate sugar cravings and help your body to stop storing fat. The first key to stabilizing blood sugar is to eat high quality low glycemic carbs. Low glycemic carbs are found in whole grains like whole oats, quinoa, barley, and buckwheat. Whole wheat breads aren’t a good source of carbohydrates. Most are way over-processed, which raises their glycemic index. Beans are one of the best sources of low glycemic carbs. For more detailed info on choosing and preparing low glycemic carbs, check out Nutrition, Energy, and Mood.