To Curb Cravings, Eat a Sweet at Every Meal

My client, Debbie, said sweet cravings were destroying her health and her weight loss attempts. She was "eating practically a box of chocolates every day" and couldn't stop. And while chocolate fits into a healthy diet - I prescribe daily chocolate for my clients who need to gain weight - the amount she was eating was not helping her high cholesterol, her fatty liver, and was causing her weight to soar higher and higher.

What seemed like an impossible problem was a cinch to fix. All we did was add sweet foods to her routine. You see, your body craves a variety of flavors, textures, colors and shapes, preferably in each meal, to feel satisfied. If one of those flavors, such as sweet, is missing from your meal, you are less likely to feel satisfied and you will crave that missing flavor. Pay attention to your next large savory meal. Even if you are no longer hungry, you will probably crave sweets afterwards. If, on the other hand, you include fruit as a part of your meal, you will crave fewer sweets, which is something I advise in my book, Diet Simple.

Evolution created our drive for food variety, as it gave us more nutrients, allowing us to survive. Sweets were particularly important because they provided more calories to withstand frequent famines.

Simply make fruit a part of every meal and snack. You may be surprised at how your sweet cravings become more manageable. This technique works for my clients with excess sweet cravings, even for a recovering alcoholic who lived on sweets.

Will fruit take the place of chocolate? Well... No! At least not all the time. But will it reduce your cravings and allow you to be satisfied with a more reasonable and healthy amount? My experience says: Yes! Give it a try yourself. The mandarine oranges I recently purchased from Trader Joe's really hit the spot for me, and allow me to enjoy a little chocolate, too.