Sugar Cravings: A Nutritionist’s Guide to Understanding Them

24 Jul

*Sweet Corner Bakery, West Hampstead, London.*

If you’ve ever struggled with sugar cravings and gone to someone for help, or tried Googling solutions, you’ve probably come across advice like ‘eat an apple instead’ or ‘fill up on veggies to keep cravings at bay.’

You’ve also probably seen the graphics: one fun-sized chocolate bar sitting on a plate next to a small mountain of apples and carrots. The caption usually shouts something like, ‘Same calories, choose wisely’

Sure, the comparison isn’t wrong.

Apples and carrots bring fibre, vitamins, crunch, and you’ll feel full for longer than you would after a single bite of chocolate. If someone’s constantly hungry because every meal is tiny and ultra-processed, expanding volume with whole foods can be a game-changer. There’s absolutely a place for that reminder.

But let’s get real for a second,

when you’re exhausted, stressed, sad, bored, or desperately needing comfort, an apple isn’t going to cut it.

Because sometimes the craving isn’t about hunger at all, it’s about comfort, or the dopamine hit your brain knows chocolate will deliver. And a carrot isn’t going to hit the same as the chocolate you’re thinking about.

Here’s what no one’s telling you:

Your sugar cravings are actually valuable information.

They are complex, multi-layered, and biologically, psychologically, environmentally driven. They’re your body’s way of trying to communicate real, unmet needs: biological, emotional, sensory, and habitual.

And swapping sugar for an apple is sometimes like putting a band-aid on a deep wound; it addresses the symptom superficially, without resolving the root cause. Real change comes from understanding the underlying reasons behind your cravings.

So if your sugar cravings feel intense, frequent, or like they’re controlling you, it’s time to pause… not restrict.

In this post, we’ll look at what might actually be driving your cravings, and what to try instead that meets the real need underneath. Because the goal isn’t to fight every craving. It’s to understand it, and respond with appropriate care.

🔍 Let’s break it down.

✅ Biological?

1️⃣ Are your meals actually balanced? With enough protein, starchy carbs, fibre, fats?

One of the most fundamental, and fixable, causes of cravings is physiological imbalance. Specifically, meals that aren’t structured in a way that supports stable blood glucose, hormonal regulation, and satiety signals

This isn’t just a nice nutrition guideline, it’s a fundamental part of how your body regulates hunger, energy, and cravings.

🔬 Blood sugar regulation:

When you eat a meal high in refined carbs (like white bread or sugary cereal) without enough protein, fats, or fibre, your blood glucose spikes rapidly.

In response, your body releases insulin, a hormone whose job is to clear excess glucose from the blood and move it into your cells for energy or storage.

But here’s the catch: when the rise is sharp, the insulin response is often too strong. It overshoots. Your blood sugar doesn’t just come down, it crashes.

That’s when you feel:

tired or shaky
foggy or irritable
and often... craving more sugar

Why? Because your brain detects that dip in glucose and urgently signals you to bring it back up, fast.

And the quickest way? Sugar. Which kicks off the cycle again.

This is why balanced meals (with protein, fibre, fat, and starchy carbs) matter, they help keep your blood sugar steady, so you’re not constantly spiking and crashing throughout the day.

🔴 High Sugar/Unbalanced Meal
Notice how blood sugar rapidly spikes to nearly 10 mmol/L, then crashes below baseline within a couple of hours. That dip around 3.8 mmol/L is where you might feel shaky, moody, tired, craving sugar. It’s your body trying to restore balance (homeostasis) by triggering hunger and cravings, especially for fast, sugary foods that will bring blood glucose back up quickly.

🟢 Balanced Meal
In contrast, the rise after a balanced meal is gentle and controlled. Glucose levels stay in a healthy range without dropping too low, which helps stabilise mood, energy, and hunger. That’s why you’re much less likely to feel a strong urge to snack.

This pattern explains a huge amount of daily cravings. It’s not about willpower, it’s physiology, and it can be stabilised through better meal composition.

Protein

slows down gastric emptying and stimulates the release of hormones like GLP-1 and PYY, which increase feelings of fullness. It also blunts post-meal blood sugar spikes. When protein is low (especially at breakfast), you're more likely to experience rapid rises and drops in blood glucose later, leading to cravings for fast-acting carbs.

This is especially relevant if you’re only having carbs on their own, like toast with jam or cereal with little protein.

Starchy Carbohydrates

When people talk about blood sugar crashes, they often blame carbs altogether, but that’s missing the point. It’s not that carbs are ‘bad’. It’s how fast they digest, and what you pair them with.

Let’s say you eat a bowl of plain white rice or a slice of white bread on its own. That’s a quick-release carbohydrate, it breaks down rapidly into glucose, giving you a fast hit of energy. The problem? That spike is followed by a dip, as your body releases insulin to bring things back into balance.

Now contrast that with a balanced plate:

You still have the starchy carbohydrate, but it’s paired with protein, fibre, and healthy fats. Maybe it’s brown rice with chicken, avocado and veg. Or roasted potatoes with salmon and greens.

That combination slows down digestion, creates a more stable blood sugar curve, and keeps you fuller for longer. Your body gets the glucose it needs, but without the rollercoaster.

📝 You might’ve heard about “low GI” (glycaemic index) carbs like oats, lentils, or sweet potatoes. And yes, those are generally slower to digest. But what’s more important than the GI of a single food is the glycaemic load of the full meal. That’s what actually determines how your blood sugar responds.

Too little carb = energy shortage → sugar cravings
Too much fast carb = blood sugar spike → insulin surge → crash → sugar cravings

Fibre

slows digestion. When you eat a high-fibre meal, glucose from your food enters the bloodstream more gradually, rather than all at once. This leads to a gentler rise in blood sugar, a more stable insulin response, and far fewer of those spike → crash → crave cycles we associate with sugary or refined meals.

There are two main types of fibre:

Soluble fibre (found in oats, beans, lentils, flaxseeds, apples) forms a gel-like texture in the gut, which helps slow down carbohydrate absorption.
Insoluble fibre (like in wholegrains, veg skins, nuts, seeds) adds bulk, supports digestion, and helps you feel physically satisfied after eating.

The key is: fibre keeps you fuller for longer. It stretches the stomach, increases satiety hormones like GLP-1 and PYY, and delays gastric emptying, so your brain gets the message: ‘we’ve eaten enough’.

Plus, fibre feeds your gut bacteria, and your gut microbiome plays a huge role in regulating cravings. Some strains even influence which foods you crave, depending on what they’re being fed.

Healthy Fats

help with satiety and hormone production, and they reduce the glycaemic impact of a meal when paired with carbs. If you’re eating low-fat to cut calories, your meals might digest too quickly, leaving you less satisfied, and more likely to snack soon after. Fats also modulate hormones like ghrelin (hunger hormone) and are essential for absorbing fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K), which support overall metabolic health.

2️⃣ Are you under-eating/crash dieting?

Crash dieting (aka any approach where you're eating far too little, often with the goal of quick weight loss) is one of the most common reasons people experience intense sugar cravings.

When you go on a very low-calorie diet, your body doesn’t just lose weight. It also starts adjusting in ways that are designed to protect you. One of those adjustments is increasing your drive to eat, especially foods that are high in sugar and fast to digest.

What often feels like a sugar craving is really a response to energy deprivation. It’s your body saying, ‘I need fuel, and I need it now’.

This happens because glucose is your body’s main source of energy, especially for the brain. When your energy intake drops too low, your brain starts looking for quick ways to bring it back up, and that’s when sugar becomes extremely appealing.

Crash dieting also affects key hormones that regulate hunger and fullness. Ghrelin, which makes you feel hungry, goes up. Leptin, which tells your brain you’ve had enough and that energy stores are okay, goes down.

And the longer or more extreme the diet, the stronger those signals get.

On top of that, if your body feels deprived for long enough, your brain becomes more sensitive to reward. Foods like chocolate, biscuits, or anything high in sugar or fat start to feel even harder to resist, not because you're weak, but because your brain is wired to prioritise quick energy when it thinks you're running low.

So if you’ve been crash dieting or heavily restricting what you eat, even for a short time, and now feel ‘out of control’ around sugar, it might be a natural response to being under-fuelled.

3️⃣ Are you sleep-deprived?

Insulin resistance & blood sugar fluctuations

Just one night of limited sleep (4–5 hours) can reduce your body’s ability to manage blood sugar effectively
This leads to energy dips after meals, and what does your body want to fix that dip? Fast-digesting sugar.

Studies show that cravings can increase by up to 30% after a night of short sleep, especially for sweet and starchy foods

Impaired decision-making

Sleep deprivation also affects the prefrontal cortex (the part of your brain that helps with planning, self-control, and long-term thinking). At the same time, activity in the amygdala and reward centres of the brain increases. These areas become hyper-responsive to high-sugar, high-fat foods.

In short: your brain becomes less rational and more impulsive. You’re more likely to choose whatever gives you quick pleasure, and sugar fits that bill perfectly.

4️⃣ How’s your gut been lately? Bloated, off, irregular?

Gut health and cravings are more connected than most people realise.

Your gut isn’t just involved in digestion, it plays a key role in regulating appetite, mood, metabolism, immune response, and even the types of foods you crave.

The gut microbiome (the community of trillions of microbes living in your digestive tract) produces signalling molecules that communicate with your brain via the gut-brain axis.

When your gut is healthy, this communication helps regulate hunger, satiety, and mood. But when something’s off, like bloating, irregular bowel movements, food sensitivities, or persistent discomfort, it can affect cravings. Especially if there’s something like candida overgrowth or SIBO, which can make cravings for carbs and sugar feel really intense.

That’s because certain bacteria preferentially feed on simple carbohydrates, including sugar. When these strains dominate (due to low fibre intake, frequent antibiotic use, stress, or high refined carb diets), they may influence cravings to secure their own food source.

One 2014 review in BioEssays even suggested that microbes may actively influence your behaviour to increase their chances of survival, including shifting your cravings toward foods they prefer.

That’s why healing the gut is one of the most powerful, root-cause ways to reduce sugar cravings.

5️⃣ Have you been overexercising or doing intense workouts without enough rest or fuel?

High-intensity workouts (like heavy lifting, HIIT, spin classes, or long cardio sessions) use up muscle glycogen, which is your body’s stored form of carbohydrate.

Your body needs fuel to recover from exercise, especially intense or frequent training. When you don’t eat enough to match what you’re burning, and if you don’t replenish those energy stores through food, especially carbs, your body starts running low.
And when glycogen gets depleted, the brain sends a very clear signal:

give me sugar, now.

It’s a physiological drive to restore fuel. Here’s what’s happening under the surface:

Glycogen depletion. Your muscles store carbs as glycogen. Intense workouts burn through it. If you don’t refuel, your body sends signals (via cravings) to top it up.
Low leptin, high ghrelin. Energy deficit affects hunger hormones. Leptin drops (so you feel less full), and ghrelin rises (so you feel hungrier).
Cortisol elevation. Exercise is a form of physical stress. Without enough rest or fuel, cortisol stays elevated, and that can increase appetite, particularly for fast-digesting high-calorie foods.
Increased energy demands. Exercise boosts your metabolism temporarily. If you don’t meet that higher demand with adequate food, your body will compensate later, often through strong cravings.

💡 Ask: Am I giving my body enough to recover from the energy I’m spending?

Here’s the thing …

⚖️ Your Body Is Always Trying to Get Back to Balance (a.k.a. Homeostasis)

Your body’s core job is to maintain homeostasis, a state of internal balance where energy levels, hormones, blood sugar, and metabolism are all kept within a stable range.

When that balance gets disrupted (from under-eating, stress, blood sugar crashes, lack of sleep, intense exercise without recovery) your body reacts. And cravings are often part of that response.

So from your body’s perspective, low calorie intake isn’t a ‘diet’, it’s a threat. So it adapts by doing everything it can to get you back to safety: making food more appealing, increasing the reward response to sugar, and making it harder to stop eating once you start.

The goal is to restore balance, not sabotage you.

So if you’re constantly battling cravings, it’s worth stepping back and asking:

Am I giving my body enough, consistently, to feel safe, nourished, and stable?

Because the more we try to override biology with willpower, the louder those signals tend to get. When you start working with your body’s need for balance, cravings often become less intense, and easier to manage.

✅ Emotional?

6️⃣ Are you stressed, sad, bored, lonely?

This is where we move beyond biology and into emotion, because not all cravings come from physical hunger. Sometimes, you’re not eating because your body needs fuel. You’re eating because your brain is trying to feel different than it does right now.

This is emotional eating

a big topic on its own (and one I’ll unpack fully in another post), but it’s important to touch on here because sugar is one of the most common tools people use to self-soothe.

When you eat something sweet, your brain releases dopamine (aka neurotransmitter that gives you a short-lived sense of pleasure, reward, and even calm). At the same time, foods rich in carbs and fat can increase serotonin (your feel-good, stabilising brain chemical) and reduce the stress hormone cortisol, at least temporarily.

So if you’re feeling emotionally low, and suddenly craving sugar, that’s not a coincidence; it’s your brain trying to regulate your mood using whatever it has access to. It’s a coping mechanism

That said, sugar doesn’t address the root of the feeling. It soothes the symptoms (briefly) but the emotion often resurfaces, sometimes along with guilt or discomfort around eating.

We’ll be covering emotional eating more deeply in another post, because it deserves space of its own. But for now, it’s worth asking:

7️⃣ Are you using sugar to soothe, numb, comfort, escape?

This is a slightly different question from simply asking how you feel. It’s about what role sugar is playing in that moment.

Food can become a form of emotional regulation, a way to distract, calm, or disconnect. This is especially common when other tools for managing emotions (like rest, connection, movement, or expression) feel unavailable or unfamiliar.

Over time, the brain starts linking sugar with emotional relief.

So it becomes automatic:

feel discomfort → crave sugar → feel a short sense of relief → repeat

it’s about patterned emotional responses. And sometimes sugar is genuinely the most accessible tool someone has in that moment.

The goal isn’t to remove comfort from food entirely, food is meant to be enjoyable and emotional at times. But when it becomes the only way you cope, that’s usually a sign there’s a deeper need being left unmet.

Plus, these cravings are often tied to deep associations we’ve formed over time.

Think about it:

A treat after school.
Birthday cake and celebration.
A bowl of ice cream after a tough day.
Chocolate during heartbreak, under a blanket, watching Netflix.

These aren’t just habits, they’re emotional imprints. Your brain doesn’t just remember the food, it remembers how that moment felt: warm, safe, cared for, distracted, soothed.

**The craving isn’t just for sugar, it’s for what sugar represents.**

Understanding that can help you slow down and ask: What am I really craving? Is it food, or is it familiarity, stimulation, comfort connection?

Sometimes, you might still go ahead and have the chocolate, and that’s okay. But when you understand the why, you’re more likely to make that choice with awareness instead of autopilot.

✅ Hormonal?

8️⃣ Where are you in your cycle?

Is this your body asking for energy before your period hits?

It's a very real pattern: many people notice increased hunger and intense cravings, especially for carbs and sweets, just before their period.

During the luteal phase (the second half of your cycle, after ovulation), your body ramps up production of a hormone called progesterone. This helps prepare for a potential pregnancy, but it also increases your resting energy expenditure (basically, your metabolism slightly speeds up). That’s why you might feel hungrier in that phase. Research has shown that people burn around 100–300 more calories per day during the luteal phase compared to the follicular phase.

At the same time, your serotonin levels dip, that’s your brain’s feel-good chemical. Since carbs help increase serotonin, you naturally crave more carb-rich or comforting foods, not because you're weak, but because your brain is genuinely seeking balance and stability.

On top of that, some studies have found that insulin sensitivity drops in the luteal phase, meaning your blood sugar might fluctuate more than usual, which can trigger further cravings, especially for sweet, fast-releasing carbs.

9️⃣ Are You on Any Medication That Could Be Affecting Your Cravings?

If you’re on medication (e.g. steroids, antidepressants, antipsychotic medications) and noticing stronger or more frequent cravings, especially for sweet or starchy foods, it’s worth exploring whether your prescription might be playing a role.

Understanding the connection helps you:

Be more compassionate with yourself
Proactively plan balanced meals/snacks
Speak with your doctor about alternatives or adjustments, if needed
So if you’ve noticed a change in your appetite or sugar cravings since starting a new medication, it’s worth asking:
Could this be a side effect I need to account for?
And it’s worth bringing it up with a healthcare provider, not to stop the medication, but to explore strategies for balancing your nutrition and energy needs in response.
✅ Mental?

1️⃣0️⃣ Do certain foods feel off-limits, which makes you want them more?

Are you stuck in the restrict → crave → overeat/binge cycle?

Ever said to yourself:
‘Ugh, I’ve ruined it now. Might as well eat everything and start again Monday’

That right there is the ‘What-the-hell effect’ a well-documented psychological pattern where one slip makes you feel like you've failed, so you go all in. Research in eating behaviour shows that rigid dieting, especially all-or-nothing thinking, increases the likelihood of binge eating and feeling out of control around food.

Why does this happen?

Telling yourself you ‘can’t’ have something usually makes you want it more.

When you tell yourself something is ‘bad’ or ‘off-limits’ your brain registers it as scarce. The moment something is forbidden, your reward system becomes more sensitive to it. The food starts to hold more emotional and psychological power than it should.

Scarcity = Urgency

So when you do have it, your brain lights up with anticipation dopamine, it becomes more rewarding, more tempting, more intense than it ever needed to be.

This often leads to:

“I’ll just have a bit” → eats the whole thing
“I shouldn’t be eating this” → eats even more out of guilt
“I’ve already ruined it” → might as well binge today and be ‘good’ tomorrow”

Mentally restricting a food increases attention, emotional reactivity, and reward-seeking around it. Studies using fMRI scans show that people who chronically diet or label foods as "bad" have higher brain reward activation when shown images of those foods.

‼️ Disclaimer: If you're experiencing frequent binge eating episodes or feel out of control around food, please speak to your GP or a registered dietitian. This content is for general educational purposes and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

So ditch the ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ food labels. When foods aren’t forbidden, their emotional charge softens, and cravings naturally diminish. This is called habituation, and studies show cravings fade when previously restricted foods are consistently allowed.

✅ Environmental?

1️⃣1️⃣ Does your environment support your goals, or sabotage them?Are you surrounded by snacks 24/7?

Your environment plays a huge role in your behaviour, often more than we realise. When snacks are constantly visible, accessible, or tied to your routines, it becomes much harder to distinguish between a genuine craving and an automatic response.

This isn’t about willpower. It’s about exposure and repetition. Research in behavioural psychology shows that visual cues, like seeing sweets on the counter, hearing a wrapper, or even just walking past a vending machine, can activate brain reward pathways and trigger cravings, even in the absence of hunger.

Over time, your brain forms cue–reward loops:

See chocolate → think of comfort/pleasure → feel urge to eat

Pass the kitchen → biscuits are there → craving kicks in

One well-known study from Brian Wansink’s lab at Cornell University showed that people ate significantly more candy when it was visible in a clear jar on their desk vs. hidden in a drawer. Just the visibility increased consumption, without them even realising it

So if you’re battling cravings all day, take a look around. Is your space supporting calm, regulated eating, or triggering automatic urges to snack?

Sometimes, the easiest ‘craving fix’ is adjusting your environment.

1️⃣2️⃣ Did you just walk past a bakery?

Walking past a bakery, smelling warm pastries or fresh bread, seeing a display of cakes or biscuits, all of these can trigger cravings, even if you were completely fine five seconds before.

This is known as a cue-triggered craving, a craving that’s initiated by something in your environment, rather than actual hunger or nutritional need

Here’s where it gets more interesting: Your body can start releasing insulin before you even eat

This is called the cephalic phase insulin response, and it happens when your brain detects food through sight, smell, or thought. If you’ve trained your body to expect sugar when you smell it or see it (like passing that same bakery every morning), the brain may trigger a small insulin release in anticipation of what’s coming.

This can temporarily lower your blood glucose slightly, making you feel even hungrier, or giving you that slightly lightheaded, must-eat-now urgency = aka cravings.

1️⃣3️⃣ Do you eat distracted, in a rush, or without tuning in?

It might seem unrelated, but how you eat has a big impact on what you crave, and how satisfied you feel afterwards.

When you eat while distracted, scrolling, working, watching TV, rushing between tasks, your brain doesn’t fully register the sensory experience of eating. That includes the flavours, textures, smells, and satisfaction that normally help you feel ‘done’ with a meal.

This matters because satisfaction isn’t just about fullness, it’s also about sensory and psychological completion.

If your brain doesn’t register that you’ve eaten something enjoyable, it’s more likely to keep prompting you to seek out more, especially something with strong flavour, sweetness, or crunch.

In addition, distracted or rushed eating tends to override your body’s hunger and fullness cues. You might eat too little (which leads to cravings later) or too much (which can cause discomfort and then restrict–crave cycles). Either way, the disconnect leaves your body unsure, and your brain still looking for closure, which often shows up as… ‘just a little something sweet’.

Studies show that mindful eating, slowing down, paying attention, chewing properly, and engaging your senses, can reduce post-meal cravings, especially for sugar and snacks. It helps your brain recognise the eating experience as complete.

So before assuming you ‘just have a sweet tooth’, it’s worth asking: Did I actually slow down and experience my meal?

Scientific Evidence: Mindfulness Reduces Cravings

In a 2018 trial published in Obesity, a smartphone-based mindful eating program led to a 40% reduction in craving-related eating among overweight women, along with decreased overeating and even correlated weight loss.
Another study involving nearly 200 participants in a 12-month mindfulness-enhanced diet and exercise program found that increases in mindful eating were linked to reductions in sweets consumption and helped maintain stable fasting glucose levels

✅ Habitual?

1️⃣4️⃣ Is this just what you do after dinner? Has it become a ritual, not a craving?

Our brains love predictability

When you do something repeatedly at the same time or in the same context e.g.

finishing dinner → cleaning up → reaching for chocolate

it forms a cue–routine–reward pattern. That’s the foundation of habits.

Not all cravings are biological or emotional, some are simply habit loops that your brain has repeated often enough to feel automatic.

This is especially common with:

Evening TV and chocolate
Tea and biscuits
Work breaks and snacks
Finishing a task and “rewarding” yourself with food

Here’s What I’ll Leave You With

Cravings aren’t just about willpower. They’re messages, signals from your body, your mind, your hormones, your environment.

And like most things in the body, they’re rarely just one thing. Sometimes you’re low on energy. Sometimes you’re low on joy. Sometimes your period’s coming. Sometimes you’re just tired and walk past a bakery. And sometimes? It’s all of the above.

Like when I was in Rome, 35 degrees, walking past a gelato shop every hundred metres, hot, tired, surrounded by people eating ice cream, and suddenly craving it too. Was it emotional? Sure. Environmental? Definitely. Biological? Probably. Cravings are layered. They’re rarely black and white.

So before you jump to ‘I have no control’, just pause. Get curious.

What’s really going on underneath that craving?

Because once you understand the why, ,

you’re no longer reacting on autopilot, you’re responding.

And that means you get to decide. Without guilt. Maybe you choose to have the thing. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you have it today and balance things out tomorrow.

Food is meant to be pleasure and nourishment. It can be both.

Zara Hiridjee