Sugar cravings seemed to get more and more potent as I started my Fatty Liver journey. And the truth is I didn’t quite consider myself someone who craved sugary food. Don’t get me wrong! I do love sweet food, especially chocolate! However, I never believed that laying off sweets would be this difficult.
So, here are 9 concrete tips that I have collected over the past couple of years to fight sugar cravings. Before you get into them – just know that it takes time to control the cravings and it doesn’t go away. However, if you do lose control here, don’t beat yourself up. Keep looking forward and try to get the cravings in control as soon as possible.
Do not beat yourself up for giving into the cravings, however, focus on getting the cravings back in control.
Here is a countdown of tips to curb those pesky sugar cravings along with a bonus tip at the end:
9. Reduce Stress
Sleep More, Sleep Better
Stress causes our minds and body to seek comfort. We often end up finding comfort in sweet delicacies. Reducing overall stress by getting good night’s sleep is one of the best long-term methods of reducing those sugar cravings. You may not observe the benefits immediately as some of the other tips here, but in the long term, this will help reduce those cravings.
So make sure you are getting 6-8 hours of sleep every day. However, given the busy lives, it is often tough to achieve this goal, however for long-term benefit, the more sleep you can bake into your schedule the better off you will be. If you have trouble sleeping, supplements can help.
Melatonin supplement helps with sleep and has also been shown to improve Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver disease (as an example, see this study). So if you have problems sleeping, ask your doctor about using melatonin as a supplement. You can find it in your nearest pharmacy, however, I recommend these two brands of Melatonin supplements (affiliate-links)
Sleep and exercise both are long term remedies for sugar cravings because they help with stress reduction, thus reducing stress eating automatically.
Exercise More
Exercise is always in consideration when we are discussing long-term benefits and reducing stress. As I have mentioned in my other articles, exercising doesn’t need to be an extravagant affair. Start your day with only 10 minutes of fast walking and add to it during the day with 5-10 minute intervals. Any exercise is good, however, the goal is to go beyond 30 minutes in the day.
Listen To Calming Music
As a stress response, our bodies often seek immediate satisfaction from high-sugar foods; reducing this stress impulse with music can thus alleviate these cravings. Research and experience from both the musical and medical perspectives support the use of calming music as a multi-faceted tool for stress reduction and healthier lifestyle habits. Listening to serene music can trigger the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin, which induce relaxation, reduce stress levels, and subsequently can aid in curbing sugar cravings.
Additionally, by contributing to a more relaxed state, music can help promote healthier food choices and more mindful eating, vital elements in a fatty liver diet. Hence, the strategic use of calming music can not only attenuate stress and its physiological effects, but also support behavior changes to benefit those aiming for a healthier liver. Here is a YouTube playlist with calming music for you: How To Reduce Stress With Calming Music.
8. Drink More Water
Water heals! It can also help with sugar cravings. It does take time to witness the change in body and cravings after you start drinking more water. And no one talks about this delay so you start expecting an immediate benefit and feel discouraged when it is not working.
In my experience, it took about 4 weeks before I could feel my food and sugar cravings reduced significantly after I started my lifestyle changes. Other factors certainly helped, but I felt that drinking more water had a big part to play in reducing those hunger pangs and sugar cravings for me.
Pro Tip: You do not have to drink plain water all the time. Add in lemon wedges, lemon juice, fruit slices to make your own version of flavored water. (AVOID store bought flavored water)
7. Drink Coffee
Coffee is beneficial for Fatty Liver. In general, the recommended guideline is to consume 2-3 cups of coffee per day. I noticed that drinking coffee kept my sugar cravings in check. Black coffee is the best because Milk does contain a lot of sugar.
Don’t believe me? Try this out. Caffeine is shown to decrease appetite, increase fat burn, and aid weight loss. For me, it was a big factor in curbing food and sugar cravings and the benefit was immediate.
Pro Tip: Consume half cup of coffee at a time, to give you 2 opportunities to curb your cravings in 1 cup of coffee. This is how I did it at the start of my journey.
6. Sprinkle In Some Salt To Stop Sugar Cravings
When you get a sugar craving, put a little bit of salt on your tongue to get rid of the craving.
Do not believe it? I did not either. I saw this tip on the Facebook support group for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver. I completely ignored it as a bogus tip until one day I got desperate – A nighttime sugar craving.
I was out of options. Then, I remembered this tip, and I thought – “well what is the harm in trying this?”. Guess what? It worked for me. I kicked the craving all the way to the next day! After this, I often employed this strategy when I was out of options.
I will caveat this by saying that the tip only worked about 80-90% of the time. It is still a great go-to strategy that didn’t take much effort. And when you are fighting for your fatty liver treatment like I was, I am sure you will take every win you can get.
5. Eat Fruits To Stop Fatty Liver Sugar Cravings
Fruits are naturally sweet and I found that eating fruit – no matter which kind – is good for fatty liver. The reason is that in terms of fruit, the good outweighs the bad (sugar content). I never restricted myself from eating any fruits, however, I definitely ate sugar-rich fruits like bananas in moderation.
Worry less about which kind of fruit to eat and focus more on eating a wide variety of fruits.
Hence, unlike the Keto diet recommendation, in my opinion, having a couple of servings of different kinds of fruits is a great strategy to reduce the sweet cravings.
My seasonal favorites are Mango, Kiwi, and Cherries.
Pro tip: Heard of fruit salad? Dice up different kinds of fruits, mix them and add a pinch of black salt for a tasty and healthy fruit salad. Add oregano and red chili flakes for an added kick!
Note: People with diabetes, please follow your doctor’s advice
4. Make A Fruit Smoothie
Bored of eating fruits? Fruit smoothies are an awesome way to get a sweet dish in the day without an ounce of processed sugar. My go-to fruits for a smoothie are:
- Half a banana (Peel and freeze the other half!)
- Apple
- Cherries (pitted)
- Mango
- Strawberries
- Blue Berries
And for the liquid base, you can use low-fat yogurt, fat-free milk, or homemade almond milk. (I recommend that you do not use store-bought almond milk if you have fatty liver).
Pro tip: Add a little bit of seeds in the smoothie for a healthy kick to the sweet treat. My favorites to add to the blender are flaxseed powder, chia seeds and hemp seeds
3. Use Mouth Wash To Reduce Sugar Cravings
To reduce Fatty Liver Sugar Cravings, this is one of the most effective techniques and almost as effective as #2, but with lesser effort. Rinse your mouth with mouthwash for 1 minute or so.
This was surprisingly effective for me and I feel the reason behind the effectiveness is the fact that the taste buds are completely jolted for a while.
Pro tip: Don’t just use the mouthwash when you get a sugar craving, but also use it after every meal to curb snacking impulses.
2. Brush Your Teeth to Curb Sugar Cravings For Fatty Liver
Even more effective than #3 is to brush your teeth after every meal to keep those Fatty Liver Sugar Cravings at bay. I feel the additional effort of brushing the teeth not only cleans the mouth and resets your taste buds, it also generates inertia against eating anything to make the teeth dirty again.
I have found brushing the teeth technique to be very effective, however, the caveat is depending on your location (office team lunch for example), you may or may not have access to materials needed for brushing.
Pro tip: Carry travel toothbrush, toothpaste and mouthwash packs in your office bag or store them in your office locker.
1. Use Sugar Substitutes For Fatty Liver For Sugar Cravings
I bring the top option to you after doing a lot of research and self-experimentation. You can actually have sweets to satiate sugar cravings! There are three almost guilt-free sugar substitutes that you could use when you have fatty liver. However, be warned! Devil is in the detail – while you have good substitute options for sugar, you really can’t be just substituting sugar but consuming high calorie / high carb items like cakes, donuts, cookies, etc. because carbs in these items also come from the flour.
Pro Tip: While you can substitute sugar, make sure what you are consuming is not otherwise carb rich item itself because replacing just sugar is not going to help much.
Without further delay, here are the three items that I think you can use instead of sugar. I have written articles about each of them separately, so follow the links to learn more:
BONUS TIP: Hide Temptations To Avoid Sugar Cravings For Fatty Liver
Finally, the most important tip. Initially, I was struggling to make significant lifestyle changes to help with my Fatty Liver. However, with the help of this book: The Power of Discipline, I got to learn how to approach the changes with discipline and since then I have done fabulously, reversing my Fatty Liver in about 2 years.
Pro Tip: Will power like any muscle cannot be tested / exercised ALL the time. You have to be able to give it a rest. So doing away with temptations as much as you can is the best strategy.
One significant tip I have received is this: You cannot be controlling yourself ALL the time. It’s just not practical. You got to either get rid of temptations or at least hide them so that they are “out of sight and out of mind”.
I started by hiding sugar containers out of sight and buying the smallest possible sugar packets from the grocery store as refills (for others in the family to use). This way I created a short supply of sugar in the home with a negative feedback loop – my eating sugar resulted in me making more frequent trips to the grocery store to refill sugars. The additional effort further helped keep the temptations in check.
Conclusion
Yes, you can control those sugar cravings and urges with some simple steps. Some of these methods will provide longer-term relief while others will provide an immediate effect.
Final Tip: Discipline is required to make lifestyle changes. I recommend that you read The Power Of Discipline to get better at discipline. It takes time and the guidance provided in this book is invaluable.
Thank you for this