Sweet tooth cravings can be a bummer for your diet regime. But you know what’s worse? Curbing the sugar cravings and then rebounding on a large bowl of gulab jamuns in five minutes flat. If you’ve been struggling to keep off sugar, you’re reading the right article. We are not going to ask you to stop eating sweet stuff, but teaching you to substitute dessert with foods that will ensure a sugar rush MINUS the calories.
Dietician, Indrayani Pawar, Healthcare Surgical, Mumbai says, “Sugar cravings are actually signals by the body that something is genuinely lacking from the diet. To lose weight people tend to skip meals, breakfast being the most important one of them. So, the body continues in overnight fasting mode of eight to nine hours, which sometimes extends to 15 to 16 hours when you skip breakfast.”
This seems promising, and to remember not to skip breakfast, Indrayani continues with, “This also means the body will be continuously in need of glucose which increases by the end of the day and turns into a sugar craving post meals. Make sure you do not avoid or skip meals if you want to keep the cravings at bay,”
The icing on the proverbial cakes arrives courtesy nutrionist Sushila Sharangdhar, Wockhardt Hospitals, Mumbai, who states, “There is no need to avoid sweets completely unless you have a medical condition and have been asked to. Although limiting your sugar intake is a good idea for a healthy lifestyle”. Sounds doable? We think so!
Handy tips to satisfy your sweet cravings
1. Include cereals like whole wheat, brown rice, jowar, bajra, ragi and oats in all your meals. “These are low in calories and keep the body full for a longer period of time, which means no more cravings,” says Indrayani.
2. Stop consuming artificial sweeteners or sugar substitutes. Indrayani explains, “You might end up eating fewer or no calories, but remember the craving still exists. It’s better to attack the main cause of those cravings and concentrate on eliminating them, by making some healthy changes in your diet”.
3. Include natural sweeteners like dates, prunes, black currents, raisins, figs and maple syrup in your diet. You can even use honey. Sushila suggests having a bowlful of watermelon as it helps satisfy the sweet craving. Even fruits like chickoo and yellow bananas are good substitutes.
“Half a slab of rajageera chikki (made with jaggery), which is an excellent source of calcium and complex carbohydrates can be a nutritious sugar indulgence,” adds Indrayani.
4. Keep drinking water. “You will feel dehydrated and weak if you don’t drink enough water, which results in your body signaling false sugar cravings,” says Indrayani.
5. Don’t forget that moderation is the key, and the way you eat is also important. “Most people put an entire piece of dessert in their mouths and then reach out for another serving. The right way to eat your dessert is to break it into small pieces, take tiny bites, chew well and relish it. This helps you limit the intake,” advises Sushila. So, take it slow.
6. Keep your gut healthy by including foods that have friendly bacteria i.e. probiotics. “The presence of unhealthy bacteria which actually thrive on sugar can also be one of the reasons for your sugar cravings. Consume curd, yoghurt, fermented healthy foods to increase the colonisation of gut-healthy bacteria,” adds Indrayani.
7. The way we prepare our desserts plays an important role in the calories we consume. “Rasogollas are prepared with milk and mava and so are gulab jamuns, but the latter is deep-fried and therefore high in calories. One gram of sugar equals four kilocalories, while one gram of fat or ghee has nine kilocalories,” says Sushila. Similarly, milk is present in both ice-cream and kulfi, but ice-cream doesn’t have much air in it and so it is lower on the calorie count. Kulfi, which is entirely frozen, contains more calories. Kheer has lesser calories than karanji or boondi laddoos.
