Why do you crave sweets?

Cravings happen for a number of reasons:

• One is habit. Much like Pavlov’s dog, you train yourself to crave sweets by eating them at the same time of day, generally in the same setting. Thus, if you eat something sweet every night in front of the T.V. before going to bed, just by sitting in front of the T.V. your appetite will become stimulated.
  
  On another note, cravings can happen during periods of stress. Chances are good that when you were a child, every time you cried your mom stuck a nipple in your mouth and the pain of hunger went away. Many children learned early on that when things feel uncomfortable, food can make them feel better.
  
  Although that behavior may have worked for you as a child, chances are good it no longer works for you as an adult. When you use food to cope with stress, the only thing that happens is that you get fatter and your problems don’t go away.

• Cravings are also brought on by hunger. Many people think that to lose weight they should cut back their food intake severely. This rarely works and usually makes things worse. You see, once you get hungry, your diet is over! Hunger has to be avoided in order to be successful.

• It may also help to understand that cravings come and go. Picture a craving like a wave. Most people think that a craving will keep on building and building. The truth is, sweet cravings usually last about 15 minutes. If you can get over that hump, you can generally overcome the craving. 
  
  If you simply make the commitment to chew the gum when the craving first surfaces, then eat the thing you are craving, your craving will be stopped immediately. It’s important that you go ahead and try to eat the sweet that you crave after chewing the gum because after doing so you will retrain your mind to minimize the intensity of future cravings.

Click Here to find out how to stop your sugar cravings.

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