Do you crave a sweet treat after every meal? Or at the same time every day? Are you asking yourself questions like, “Why am I craving sugar?” Or perhaps more to the point, “Why am I craving sweets over savory foods?” 

Sugar cravings are common, but what does it mean when you crave sweets? They can have various causes, such as the side effects from certain foods in your diet or a bad habit that has reprogrammed your brain. However, because there are many, it can be tough to understand what causes sugar cravings. 

Next time you reach for a dessert after breakfast or a candy from the jar on your colleague’s desk at work, stop and consider the psychological and biological reasons that are motivating your sweet tooth and ask yourself: Why do I crave sugar?

1. Craving sweets is hard-wired into your brain

Several areas in your brain play a significant role in the crave sensation. The horseshoe-shaped hippocampus, located in your temporal lobe, is responsible for making short- and long-term memories and plays a significant role in reward-seeking behavior like craving for sweets.

For example, the hippocampus enables you to remember the taste of dark chocolate versus milk chocolate.

In each hemisphere of your brain, there is a caudate nucleus, which influences reward-seeking behavior. It is also responsible for forming new habits (both good and bad) like snacking on sweets the minute you walk through the door after work, without even noticing it. These habits are a conditioned response to sugar cravings, meaning you feel the urge to snack just a few hours after eating your last meal.

2. Habits are hard, but not impossible, to break

The insula, also present in each hemisphere of the brain, produces emotions in response to a sensory experience. Excellent company marketing preys on the insula. Take Coca-Cola, for example. Coke’s 2018 “Epic Summer” campaign suggested you need a cold, sugary soda pop to make memories that last a lifetime.

The first taste, or even just the thought of giving in to your craving, raises dopamine levels in your brain. This neurological reaction guarantees you great pleasure with every sip, which could be why you are craving sweets.

3. Your diet can cause cravings

Although your brain can be a challenge for your willpower, there can be foods in your diet that trigger your longing for sweet foods. You might find yourself asking, “Why am I craving sweets all of a sudden?”

One dietary culprit is low protein intake. Because protein and fats slow the release of sugar into your bloodstream, your blood sugar can rise and fall at an abnormal rate when you don’t consume enough of them. The result? Your body craves quick energy from sugar to try to stabilize the blood sugar roller coaster.

It’s for this same reason you may crave sugar on a high-carbohydrate diet. Simple carbohydrates enter the bloodstream fast, raising blood sugar, which in turn raises insulin levels. Without fiber, protein, and fats in your food, simple carbohydrates alone will leave you neither full nor satisfied, and soon you’ll be wanting more. 

Conversely, and perhaps not surprisingly, when cutting carbohydrates from your diet, your body tends to crave the quick energy it’s accustomed to. Most of us experience a ravaging sugar craving the first few days on a low-carbohydrate diet. Once your system learns to fuel itself without carbs, the craving dissipates.

A simple way to boost your protein intake is to supplement with a high-quality protein powder. Including Thorne’s Whey Protein Isolate in your daily diet is a good start. It’s ideal for people who need additional protein in their diets – from world-class athletes to individuals managing their weight.* It provides 21 grams of protein per serving from an easily assimilated, non-denatured whey source.

4. Bad habits can promote food cravings

Having a hard time catching z’s lately? Or are you asking yourself, "Why do I crave sweets at night?" This may come as news, but your sleep habits might be causing food cravings, too. Research has shown that even one night of poor sleep can decrease the upper brain function of the cerebrum – the part of the brain responsible for complex judgments and decisions – resulting in junk food cravings the following day.

In a study that compared those who had a good night of sleep to those who didn’t, the poor sleepers craved junk foods and ended up consuming a whopping 600-plus calories more than the rested group.1

Your internal clock, or your sleep-wake cycle, plays a significant role in managing the hormones ghrelin and leptin, which promote and suppress food intake. When sleep duration is short, these hormones become imbalanced, which leads to increased food intake and decreased sensations of fullness. For this reason, chronic abnormal sleep patterns, or sleep deprivation, can be severely detrimental to your waistline. This is particularly true when you give in to sugar cravings.

5. Stress may be to blame. 

One of the most common answers to “Why am I craving sweets?” is stress. Stress affects your cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone that, when elevated, alters your circulating levels of glucose and insulin. While stress affects hunger and cravings in people differently, often it can cause an increase in both. Particularly in times of acute stress, cortisol is high, which causes that familiar sensation of “overdrive.” Your body will quickly use its energy stores while in overdrive and seek out quick ways to replenish those energy stores. Hence, it starts asking you for sugar!

Learn more about your body’s stress response by measuring the body’s key hormones related to stress. Thorne’s at-home Stress Test measures the key biomarkers associated with your body’s stress response and the health of your adrenal glands to determine if you are managing your stress effectively or if you need to do more. With a personalized set of recommendations, you can learn how to optimize adrenal health and support a healthy response to stress.

6. Mineral deficiency effects might be another reason for your sweet tooth.

What does it mean when you crave sweets? We used to think that if your body craves a particular food or taste, then you must be deficient in it. While that’s not entirely wrong – like sometimes in the case of salty foods and a sodium deficiency – the craving for sweet, sugary foods might be explained by specific mineral imbalances in the body. 

What deficiencies can cause sugar cravings? An iron deficiency will zap your energy, leaving you feeling fatigued and weak. It can also explain why you’re craving sweets, because your body will crave quick energy to perk itself up. Thorne’s Iron Bisglycinate can help fight fatigue and other symptoms of iron deficiency by providing an optimal way to supplement this very absorbable form of iron.*

Calcium, zinc, chromium, and magnesium imbalances can also manifest themselves as sugar cravings. Together, these minerals are involved in hundreds of processes in your body, from carbohydrate metabolism, to producing and regulating the hormones and enzymes that control the way you think, move, and feel. Without sufficient consumption, absorption, and storage of these minerals, you could be experiencing abnormal reactions to the thought, sight, or smell of something sweet.

7.  You’re not hungry. You’re thirsty.

Hydration is another key contributor to a normal hunger response, so if you’re looking for an easy fix for how to curb sugar cravings, staying on top of your water intake is a great starting point. Many people give hydration very little thought outside of their workout routines. According to Mayo Clinic, men should drink about 124 ounces daily, while women should have about 92 ounces.2

Hydration goes hand-in-hand with mineral intake. If you are not adequately hydrated you can be deficient in crucial minerals like calcium, zinc, chromium, and magnesium or have an electrolyte balance. When you aren’t properly hydrated, a mineral deficiency can erroneously make you crave sugar when you might just be thirsty.

What should I do when I’m craving sweets?

How to manage sugar cravings

Consider these tips for success while you plan long-term behavior changes for managing your sugar cravings: 

  • Test your cortisol and melatonin fluctuations with Thorne’s at-home Sleep Test.
  • Transform your lifestyle by recognizing bad habits and replacing them with new, healthy ones; when you get a craving, try doing 10 jumping jacks or drinking a glass of water.
  • Incorporate more proteins or fats into your diet. Avoid snacks or meals that are comprised solely of carbohydrates, and reduce or eliminate artificial sweetener intake.
  • Stave off sugar cravings with some sugar-free gum. Not only will this help keep you from reaching for the snack jar, but research shows that chewing gum leads to oral health benefits.3 
  • Drink more hydrating beverages and consider better alternatives. For example, try replacing your sugar-free soda with a healthy, homemade fruit-based smoothie.
  • Introduce more fermented foods to your diet. Options like yogurt, kimchi, kombucha, and sauerkraut are sources of beneficial bacteria that help maintain overall gut health, which influences your appetite.
  • Get a sufficient amount of quality sleep and be consistent. Be diligent about going to bed and waking up at the same time each day. 
  • Boost your mood with food. Try green tea, walnuts, eggs, or cheese, which offer good sources of the “happy hormone” – serotonin. You can also try increasing your exercise routine to boost your serotonin level. 
  • Reach for foods or supplements that contain highly absorbable forms of magnesium, zinc, iron, and calcium.
  • Try a supplement to manage your sugar cravings - like a chromium supplement. This mineral is often lacking in our modern diet because refined flours and sugars are often stripped of chromium (in addition to other nutrients). A high-quality supplement, such as Thorne’s Chromium Picolinate, can help keep supports healthy blood sugar levels in the normal range to lessen carbohydrate cravings.*  

References

  1. Greer SM, Goldstein AN, Walker MP. The impact of sleep deprivation on food desire in the human brain. Nat Commun. 2013;4(1). doi:10.1038/ncomms3259
  2. Water: How much should you drink every day? Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/art-20044256. [Accessed February 21, 2023.]
  3. Dodds MW. The oral health benefits of chewing gum. J Ir Dent Assoc. 2012;58(5):253-261.