Photo by joe.oconnell

“I eat way too much sugar and have constant cravings for it that make me feel like I am addicted … do you have any suggestions for cutting back?”

There is still a debate over whether or not sugar is an addictive substance. From the data I’ve seen and people I’ve talked to, I’d guess it probably is.

But whatever the answer, the important question for most of us is how to kill the cravings that have us eating so much sugar in the first place.

Cravings exist in both the body and the mind, and you will have the best luck overcoming them if you address both simultaneously.

The first step is good nutrition. A nourished body is a happy body, and permanently kicking a sugar habit requires healthy food.

Eating balanced, delicious meals is essential for getting real satisfaction from what you eat and leaving cravings behind. For most people this means approximately 50% of your meal being vegetables and the rest split between protein, intact grains and/or legumes (beans or lentils) and a bit of oil or other fat. However, everyone is a little different and you should experiment to find what works best for you.

Healthy eating will not squelch cravings overnight, but it is essential for permanently cutting sugar because it ensures your body has everything it needs. Once your muscles and organs are taken care of, you can address the cravings in your brain.

The first step in breaking a sugar addiction is making the decision to stop eating it completely for at least 4-7 days (the longer the better), and sticking to it. While I usually recommend making dietary changes gradually, sugar has the unique ability to inspire cravings which are refueled every time you give into them.

The only way to break the cycle is to stop feeding the fire.

Once your sugar tolerance has normalized you can reintroduce it in small amounts, so long as you are sure you are eating for pleasure and not from habit.

Quitting sugar cold turkey is not entirely easy, however, even if you know the break is temporary. Cravings can be incredibly intense and make sticking to your resolution very difficult. If you hope to get through it, you must have a strategy for diverting yourself from temptation.

Start by removing all sweets (especially your weakness) from the house. Do a full sweep, no secret stashes can stay. If you do not want to throw things out, try giving them away at work or even sealing them up and putting them somewhere you can’t get to them. Making it impossible to cheat will greatly increase your probability of success. Don’t rely on willpower.

Once you have removed your most likely pitfalls you need a strategy for dealing with cravings. For this it is important to understand clearly why you want to avoid sugar, what you are making the effort for.

If you aren’t sure why limiting sugar is necessary I recommend spending some time educating yourself on the subject. If you’re a visual learner, check out the first part of this video about the potential dangers of sugar and the theories of Dr. Lustig and Gary Taubes.

Being completely convinced you want to change your habits makes following through on your resolution much easier.

The next step is deciding on alternative behaviors to divert yourself from cravings—they will pass eventually so all you need to do is distract yourself for a bit while they are strongest.

What works for you will depend a lot on your own personality and needs. For many people, sugar snacking is triggered by certain environmental cues such as location or time of day. In these situations, diversions should be planned in advance to avoid slipping into habitual behavior.

Planned distractions from habitual eating can include taking different routes between locations (to avoid walking by that bakery), substituting behaviors (there are no cookies at the gym) or choosing different foods or beverages during certain activities (mint tea instead of ice cream?).

Experiment with different alternatives and figure out what works best for you. Foods with oil and protein tend to be satisfying and quench cravings, if hunger is a problem for you. Exercise is the golden ticket for others. For me personally, sugar cravings are best satisfied by fresh fruit, especially those with a lot of fiber like apples and oranges.

Make sure your alternative foods and activities are things you enjoy. If they aren’t you will eventually abandon them for your old habits. Ideally these avoidance behaviors will completely replace your sugar habit and become your new healthstyle.

As you cut sugar out of your diet, also be sure to avoid hidden sugar sources. Stay away from sauces and condiments that are really desserts in disguise, e.g. honey mustard, teriyaki, etc. Added sugar is very common in restaurant sauces (especially mid-range chain restaurants), so you might want to avoid eating out all together for a few days if you can swing it. You should also avoid sugar substitutes.

When you have completed your four day sugar fast (go a week if you can), your cravings should have subsided substantially (the first 2 days are the worst). Continue to keep sugar minimal and actively avoid situations that cue you to eat sweets. Integrate your new behaviors into your healthstyle until the new habits replace the old ones. This process takes 6-8 weeks.

During this time get in the practice of asking yourself why you are eating sugar before you put it into your mouth. Are you eating from habit? Because of circumstance? For a special occasion? Because everyone else is?

The purpose of this exericse is not necessarily to stop yourself from eating, but to understand the reasons behind your behavior. The goal is to find a way to allow sugar into your life as a treat and not a necessity.

As you ween yourself off sugar, your tastes can change dramatically. All my life I had a sweet tooth, but over the past several years my taste for sugar has diminished and most drinks and desserts are now far too sweet for me. Consequently limiting sugar is not something I need to think much about, except during holidays and special occasions. Even then I don’t give it much thought, it happens naturally.

Besides eating whole unprocessed foods, cutting your sugar intake way down is probably the single best thing you can do to improve your health. If sugar is a problem for you, eating less of it should be one of your highest priorities.

Have you had success cutting back on sugar?

Tags: addiction, brain, Dr. Lustig, fructose, Good Calories Bad Calories, restaurants, sugar, The End of Overeating

Photo by Monster Pete

Everyone knows we should all be eating healthier, working out more and generally making better life decisions. Problem is, once you actually start doing those things, nobody wants to hear about it.

As ridiculous as it sounds, people don’t like to know when other people are taking the initiative to do things they know they should be doing themselves but haven’t had the discipline to start. If you aren’t careful about it your best efforts can earn you enemies or worse, lose you friends.

No one likes to be reminded about their own failings, so how do you maintain your healthy habits without offending the people around you who don’t appreciate your efforts?

Over the past several years I’ve used a handful of different tactics to deflect the worst intentions of naysayers. Here are the one’s I’ve found to work best.

How To Eat Healthy Without Being A Buzzkill

1. Don’t get defensive

The worst thing you can do when some criticizes you for ordering a salad is to get defensive and start preaching your nutritional superiority. I’ve seen this done, and it doesn’t end well. Whatever you do, keep an upbeat tone and maintain perspective. Not everyone understands the importance of their daily food decisions, and it’s not your job to educate them.

Instead of:

“At least I’m not going to have diabetes by the time I’m 40!”

Try:

“Actually the salad here is tasty as hell, have you tried it?”

2. Use humor

Without getting defensive, you can still jab back a bit so long as it is clear you’re being playful and joking. If someone asks why you aren’t eating from the giant Costco tub of brownie bites, cracking a joke about how it isn’t your vice of choice today can break the ice and get the attention off your healthy decision.

Instead of:

“Eeeewwwww. Haven’t you ever eaten a REAL brownie?”

Try:

“Thanks, but I’m saving my heart attack for the weekend.”

3. Creative ordering

No one will make fun of you for making healthier decisions if they don’t notice. Ordering a burger and dissecting apart the meat from the bun is certain to draw attention, but there are plenty of things you can order that won’t attract a second thought.

Instead of:

“Do your meatballs have breadcrumbs? Ok, I’ll have the spaghetti and meatballs without the sauce and without the spaghetti, and with extra meatballs. Oh, and a side of steamed broccoli please.”

Try:

“I’ll have the steak and spinach salad with a glass of your best California cab please. And can I get some blue cheese with that as well?”

4. Happy honesty

It’s hard to say bad things about someone who is clearly happy and at peace with their decisions, especially if it’s clear you aren’t being motivated by your ego.

Instead of:

“I’m choosing salad because I’d really like to lose 10 lbs this year so I don’t end up looking like you.”

Try:

“I’m just trying to eat a little healthier these days to see how it makes me feel.”

5. Harmless lies

Honesty is always the best policy, except when you’re trying to get your jerk friends off your back so you can enjoy your lunch.

Instead of:

“I’m eating a smaller lunch today so I can hit the gym later.”

Try:

“I had a really big breakfast, I’m just not that hungry.”

6. Share alike

If you know in advance you’re going to be bringing your own food, you have the advantage of having a meal that looks, smells and tastes much better than anything your friends will find at the corner sandwich shop. Show off your amazing new flavors by bringing enough of something delicious to share.

Instead of:

“Yuck, I can’t believe you’re eating that disgusting excuse for a calzone.”

Try:

“Have you tried the mandarins from the farmers market this season? They’re freaking amazing! Here, I have an extra one.”

7. Accept and nibble

Friends can be very crafty and sometimes try and force you into eating unhealthy food by offering it to you point blank. Cheap office birthday cakes are particularly offensive. Politely turning down the objectionable substance is one strategy, but can easily backfire. Just gratefully accept the food and pretend to eat it.

Instead of:

“Just a small piece for me please.”

Try:

“Mmm…thanks.”

Take one bite, then keep smiling and continue the conversation while leaving the food nonchalantly on the table. When everyone else if finishing up, subtly drop it in the trash without making a fuss (trust me, nothing is going to waste). By that time, no one will care what you’re doing. If someone does say something, just blame it on how big the piece was.

8. Don’t offer unsolicited advice

No matter how tempting it is, don’t be the reverse jerk. Only offer nutrition advice to friends if they explicitly ask you for it, otherwise keep your trap shut. The best thing you can do to help your friends is show them what good healthy food looks and tastes like by setting a good example, then let them watch for themselves as you lose weight and get in shape.

Instead of:

“You know, that Lean Cuisine isn’t going to help you get rid of those thunder thighs.”

Try:

“Wow, I have lost weight! Thanks for noticing! Yeah, I’ve been reading this site called Summer Tomato. It’s great, you should check it out.”

How do you deal with friends who don’t want you to eat healthy?

Originally published January 26, 2011.

Tags: brain, psychology

Roasted Beets With Fresh Mint and Chevre (click for recipe)

Chances are there are foods you love now that you hated as a kid. But how many foods do you still avoid just because you think you don’t like them?

Young palates struggle with things like mustard, onions and asparagus, and instead prefer more bland, less intense flavors. But as adults we sometimes cling to these preferences without ever stopping to question the value or meaning of our opinions.

But in reality, what joy is there in being a picky eater?

While it’s true that taste is subjective, I’ve never heard a convincing argument that it’s better to dislike a food than to like one. It is certainly more fun to like things, and it is often far more convenient. Just try getting a serious chef to make a signature dish without onions. It isn’t easy.

But is it possible to learn to like a food if you don’t like the taste?

It turns out that most of the time we decide what we like before we bother to experience it, and this prejudice clouds our perception of what we actually encounter. This effect of perception bias has been demonstrated repeatedly in psychology experiments where food color and taste have been manipulated. To see this for yourself, use food coloring to alter the appearance of several bowls of lemon Jell-O and have your friends guess what flavors they are tasting. Very few will say they taste lemon unless the color is still yellow.

The psychology of taste is further complicated by our natural aversion to things that are new or different from what we are expecting. Foods with unique textures such as mushrooms and okra often fall victim to this bias. In these cases the unfamiliarity and strangeness of the texture makes us slightly uncomfortable, and we interpret this feeling as a personal dislike. However, this reaction reflects the food’s uniqueness rather than its true character.

Our tendency to dislike and often hate things that extend beyond our perceptual comfort zones is explored in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. He argues that we make snap judgments about everything we encounter based on prior experience. And while this ability can sometimes help us make wise decisions, it can also explain why pilot testing can’t predict the success of new concept T.V. shows like Seinfeld.

In other words, sometimes our first impressions are wrong.

Knowing about this bias can help you overcome aversions to foods you think you don’t like, and even learn to love them. The first step is deciding that there is value in enjoying a food you currently do not enjoy. I’m not saying you should develop an appreciation for three courses of frozen Bertolli pasta, but most fresh, natural whole foods are worth rediscovering for both taste and culture.

The second step is dedicating yourself to keep trying the rejected food until you find it prepared in a way you like. This is not as bad as it sounds, since there is a good chance that the reason you do not like a food in the first place is because what you were served as a child was either canned, frozen or of industrial (low) quality. Since peaches and plums taste completely different when you get them at the farmers market, doesn’t it stand to reason that the same is true for green beans, broccoli and beets? Also, with each venture your taste will become more acclimated to the flavor and your aversion will dissipate.

Fine dining represents another great opportunity to explore foods you haven’t enjoyed in the past. I was finally won over on brussels sprouts after a spectacular meal in San Francisco, and now consider them one of my favorite autumn ingredients.

Even if a certain food doesn’t end up on your favorites list, learning to at least enjoy it in a casual way will enrich your life and help you develop an appreciation for new and unique experiences. The Chinese culture pays particular reverence to textures in food, and this attitude allows them to enjoy a far more diverse and interesting range of ingredients than any Western culture.

The key word here is “enjoy.” Eating vegetables is undeniably healthy, but the best reason to eat broccoli is that you absolutely love it.

What foods do you hate? Are you ready to get over it?

Originally published October 5, 2009.

Tags: beets, brain, Brussels sprouts, picky eaters, psychology

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

Really good reading this week. I love Marion Nestle’s commentary on meat substitutes, as well a bunch of well-designed studies linking nutrition and the brain. And definitely don’t miss Time magazine calling out the crappy Twitter streams of the culinary glitterati. Ha!

Great news, the new Digg is finally open to the public. That means all of you can now see the stories I’m Digging throughout the week if you visit my profile or follow me: http://digg.com/daryapino. If you’re using the new Digg and are finding cool foodie/healthy/geeky stories, feel free to leave your username in the comments and I’ll check out what you’re up to.

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For a complete reading list join me on the new Digg or StumbleUpon. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

• Do we need meat substitutes? <<Real meat is better for you than fake meat. If you’re vegetarian, there are many better options. (Food Politics)
• Drinking Water Proven To Help Weight Loss <<This was a popular story online this week. But, for the record, drinking water didn’t help young people (under 50) lose weight. (Discovery News)
• 8 Common Foods (That Are Poisonous) <<BS of the week. Media sensationalism doing what it does best. At least there’s enough humor in this one that I assume they know they’re full of it. (Houston Press)
• A short period of gluttony can have a lasting effect <<Looks like occasionally “letting yourself go” is a really bad idea. So is occasionally dieting, btw. Your body is very adaptable and can absorb an occasional slip up (especially if you exercise), but don’t make it a regular habit. (Los Angeles Times)
• Exercising Restores Sensitivity of Neurons That Make One Feel Full <<This is a really cool finding. Often overweight people have trouble re-adapting to normal eating portions if they’ve been overeating for many years, but this data suggests exercise may help restore normal appetite. Also helps you slim down and look awesome. Win! Win! (ScienceDaily)
• Vit D linked to cancer, autoimmune disease genes <<Scientists discovered that vitamin D interacts with at least 200 different genes, including those linked to cancer and MS. This is a possible mechanism by which it offers benefits, and a reminder that it is really important. (Medline)
• Twitter Streams of the Food Gods: Pretty Thin Soup <<I guess I’m not the only who noticed that the Twitter streams of food celebs totally suck. Ditto health celebs. My favorite people to follow tweet infrequently and are witty, insightful and almost always share useful and/or funny info. I try to hold myself to those standards. (Time)
• Link Between Diabetes, Alzheimer’s Disease Strengthened <<This is actually a lot cooler than it sounds. Normally studies do a poor job linking insulin resistance to Alzheimer’s because diagnosing the disease is tricky. To be 100% sure someone has AD you need to perform an autopsy and see plaques in the brain. Otherwise it could be a different kind of dementia. In this study the end measure is plaques. (Medline)
• How berries can help your brain clean house <<Antioxidants called polyphenols apparently activate microglia (the forgotten nerve cells) in the brain. Cool! (The Globe and Mail)
• FDA Approves Salmonella <<This is so right on it’s scary. And hilarious. I <3 The Onion.

What inspired you this week?

Tags: Alzheimer's disease, appetite, B.S. of the week, brain, meat, Twitter, vegetarian, vitamin D, water

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

Be sure to check out my guest post today over at Ecosalon! Top 10 Mistakes Made By Farmers Market Noobz

No good news this week for those of you who still love processed foods. Turns out sugar (not fat) causes heart disease, processed soy products causes cancer and the health insurance industries puts their extra money into fast food stocks. Luckily there is still hope for those of us interested in eating real food with actual taste.

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For complete reading lists join me on the social bookmarking sites StumbleUpon and Delicious. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you there. (Note: If you want a follow back on Twitter introduce yourself with an @ message).

Links of the week

• Health Insurance Companies Invest Billions In Fast Food Stock <<Do you need any more proof that you can’t count on companies to look out for you and your family’s best interests? Stay out of both fast food joints and hospitals by skipping processed foods all together. (ABC News)
• Added sugars are bad for the heart, but does it matter which kind you eat? <<Gasp! Sugar is (really really) bad for you! Who knew? (Los Angeles Times)
• Soy Report and Scorecard <<BS of the week goes to the soy industry for pretending to make health food while actually feeding people carcinogens. Don’t be surprised, processed soy food is just as bad as processed corn food. (The Cornucopia Institute)
• Being fat is bad for your brain <<You know those reports that come out every few months that say being fat might actually be good for you? Well, those ignore a lot of things like, for instance, your brain. (New York Times)
• Steady Weight Gain Boosts Late-Life Breast Cancer Risk <<And also, for instance, your cancer risk. (Medline)
• General Mills to Pull BPA from Organic Tomato Cans <<Good news for those of you worried about BPA in your canned tomatoes. Looks like they figured out a way to get it out of there. (Greener Design)
• Fish oil fails to preserve mental sharpness in the elderly, study finds <<Fish oil supplements fail to show a benefit in cognitive function in this study. Previous studies have been mixed, and remember that supplements are different from real food. (Los Angeles Times)
• Risks for Youths Who Eat What They Watch <<Scary look at the effects of marketing to children by the food industry. (New York Times)
• Cooking Fava Beans in a Flash <<Love this food hack from Allison Arevalo over at Local Lemons. Fava beans are a notoriously labor intensive. Kick that hard work in the pants with this easy recipe.
• My Food Looks Funny <<My new favorite website. Pictures of hilarious (usually nerdy) food. Who needs Lolcats?

What did you find worth reading this week?

Tags: B.S. of the week, BPA, brain, cancer, canned tomatoes, childre, fast food, recipe, sugar, Supplements